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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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Cosmic  God. 


A    FUNDpENTAL    PHILOSOPHY    IN 


POPULAR  LECTURES. 


>  -K  - 

-T 

»- 

t,. 

BY 

<  • 

IS^^^C  1^.  AATISE, 


Kabbi  of  the  Benai  Yeshurun  Congregation.    President  of 


the  Hebrew  Union  College,  -^eon 


CINCINNATI : 
Office  American    Israelite  and  Deborah^ 

1876. 


\ 

vV 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1876,  by 

ISAAC  M.  WISE, 

lu  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  Disiriet  Court  of  the  United  Stat:s 

for  the  Southern  District  of  Ohio. 


T 


/•■  /^v^ 


©aJidktiori. 


This  volume  is  dedicated  to  the  memoiy  of  a 
sainted  Mother  in  Israel,  a  peerless  woman  of  sub- 
lime virtues,  a  spouse  of  matchless  affection,  a  parent 
of  angelic  benignity: 

Therese  Wise,  nee  Block. 

She  died  December  loth,  1874,  fifty-one  years  old. 
To  her,  my  beloved  wife,  who  in  life  possessed  my 
heart  with  its  best  affections,  I  dedicate  in  eternity 
my  best  thoughts. 

The  Author. 


V 


PREFACE. 


This  book,  conceived  in  sorrow,  composed  in  grief,  and 
constructed  at  the  brink  of  despair,  contains  my  mind's 
best  thoughts,  and  my  soul's  triumph  over  the  powders  of 
darkness.  My  wife,  my  dearly  lieloved  companion  in 
this  eventful  life,  the  mother  of  my  childdren,  the  faithful 
partner  of  my  joys  and  my  sufferings,  was  prostrated 'with 
an  incurable  disease.  For  nearly  two  years  she  lived  the 
life  of  a  shadow,  without  affection  or  clear  consciousness, 
no  more  herself  than  the  ruin  is  the  castle.  I  prayed,  I 
wept,  I  mourned,  I  despaired;  and  yet  my  cup  of  woe  was 
not  full.  A  feeling  which  I  can  not  describe,  in  clashing 
conflict  with  the  above,  against  which  my  sense  of  duty 
rebelled,  and  my  better  nature  continually  and  forcibly  re- 
monstrated, overwhelmed  me  so  irresistabl}',  with  such  in- 
expressible violence,  that  I  was  drifting  and  whirling  about 
in  a  roaring  current  of  lacerating  contradictions,  tormen- 
ting self-accusations  bordering  on  self  contempt. 

Ruthless  attacks  upon  my  character,  of  restless  assail- 
ants, from  the  camp  of  implacable  foes,  embittered  my 
joyless  days.     My  energies  failed.     Insanity  or  suicide  ap- 

E eared  inevitable.  In  this  state  of  mind,  the  Satan  of 
'oubt  persecuted  me  with  all  his  furious  demons.  My  con- 
victions were  uprooted,  and  my  faith  was  shaken;  I  was 
myself  no  longer.  Once,  at  the  midnight  hour,  in  a  state 
of  indifference  and  stupor,  I  opened  the  Bible,  and  per- 
chance I  read: 

"  Unless  thy  law  had  been  my  delights,  I  should  long 
since  have  been  lost  in  my  aflfliction."     (Psalms  119,  92.) 

It  struck  me  forcibly:  "There  is  the  proper  remedy  for 
all  afflictions."  When  those  ancient  Hebrews  spoke  of 
the  law  of  God,  they  meant  the  whole  of  it  revealed  in  God's 
words  and  works.  Research,  science,  philosopy,  deep  and 
perplexing,  problems  most  intricate  and  propositions  most 
complicated,  I  thought,  like  the  rabbis  of  thetalmud,  must 
be  the  proper  remedy  for  all  maladies  of  the  heart  and 
reason.  I  plunged  headlong  into  the  whirlpool  of  philos- 
ophy, and,  I  believe,  to  have  found  many  a  gem  in  the 
fathomless  deep.    But  the  costliest  of  all  gems  I  found  is 


•       PREFACE.  5 

■s.  calm  and  composed  mind,  a  self-relying  conviction.  I 
found  myself  once  more.  My  sainted  wife  having  been 
the  first  cause  of  this  turn  in  my  life's  history,  and  this  vol- 
lUTie  containing  the  first  fruits  of  my  independent  research- 
es in  science  and  philosophy,  I  have  dedicated  it  to  her 
memory. 

I  had  lectured  every  Friday  evening  for  two  successive 
winters  on  the  History  of  Philosophy,  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  Jewish  philosophers  down  to  Baruch  Spinoza 
i\nd  Moses  Mendelssohn,  and  published  sketches  thereof 
in  T/ie  Israelite.  Meanwhile  I  read  the  modern  books  on 
philosophy  and  science,  especially  by  German  authors.  In 
the  summer  of  the  year  1874,  under  the  most  distressing 
circumstances,  I  sketched  the  course  of  lectures  now  laid 
before  the  public,  and  delivered  them  in  the  fall  and  win- 
ter of  1874-5,  ^"  ^^  Temple  of  the  Benai  Yeshurun  Con- 
gregation of  Cincinnati,  and  published  extensive  abstracts 
thereof  in  The  American  Israelite.  The  Cincinnati  daily 
papers,  especially  the  Enquirer,  and  my  audience  encour- 
aged me  so  kindly,  that  I  revised  those  lectures  to  give 
them  to  the  public  in  the  present  form,  as  a  genuinely 
American  production  of  the  philosophizing  mind. 

No  metaphysics  !  No  transcendant  and  no  transcendent- 
al philosophy  !  No  foi-mal  speculations  ! — the  good  na- 
tured,  sweet  tempered  and  self-complacent  pastor  exclaims, 
blessed  either  with  a  superabundance  of  uninquired  faith, 
■or  with  the  consciousness  of  his  inability  to  confront  the 
spirit  of  the  age  with  its  new  problems,  forced  upon  the 
thinking  mind  by  the  successes  and  discoveries  of  science, 
and  advertised  in  a  variety  of  forms  by  a  class  of  so  called 
free  thinkers,  whose  voice  reaches  all  classes  of  society, 
down  to  the  village  school-room.  The  days  of  touching 
simplicity  are  gone.  This  is  an  age  of  sober  reflection, 
■deep  and  irresistable.  Either  you  are  able  of  defending 
your  dogmas  before  the  judgment  seat  of  reason,  or  you 
must  see  them  antiquated  and  impotent.  The  conflict  ot 
science  and  religion  is  before  your  doors,  however  senti- 
mentally and  devotionally  you  may  whitewash  the  crumb- 
ling walls,  or  galvanize  defunct  forms,  or  close  your  eyes 
in  fervent  prayer,  to  see  not  how  the  platform  shakes  under 
your  feet.  You  must  defend  yourselves  or  surrender. 
What  are  your  arms  of  defence,  if  you  philosophize  not  .>* 

Again,  the  scientist,  and  the  specialist  in  particular,  who 
iittempts  to  coustruct  the  universe  in  compliance  to  the 
laws  governing  one  science,  is  no  less  opposed  to  philoso- 
yhy  than  the  sentimental  pastor.  It  is  natural  that  the  sci- 
entist, engaged  in  investigating  empirically  isolated  phe- 
nomena, classifying  formally  the  analogous  facts,  and  seek- 


PREFACE. 


ing  by  experience  and  experiment  the  law  which  governs 
them  respectively,  should  be  so  engulfed  in  empiricisna 
and  one-sided  particularism  that  the  universe  appear  to  him 
submerged  in  his  particular  science,  beyond  which  there 
is  nothing.  But  philosophy  is  not  a  merely  systematical 
cognition  of  a  class  of  things  or  even  all  things  ;  it  is  the 
coo-nition  of  the  principles,  the  summation  and  harmoniza- 
ticn  of  the  deepest  relations  of  allj^hysical  and  spiritual  es- 
sence; it  is  the  first  and  also  the  last  of  all  sciences,  front 
which  all  of  them  emerged,  and  in  which  all  of  them  finally 
submerge.  The  sciences  are  the  building  stones  of  phil- 
osophy, from  which  it  construes  the  system  of  the  uni- 
verse, in  which  all  is  in  its  proper  place,  and  all  parts  are- 
unitcd  to  a  harmonious  totality.  Philosophy  extends  be- 
yond each  science  and  all  sciences,  as  far  as  intelligence- 
reaches  beyond  phenomenal  nature.  The  systems  of  phil- 
osophy must  be  different  on  account  of  the  different  phil- 
osophizing subjects,  the  various  starting  points,  and  the- 
scientific  means  at  the  command  of  each;  but  the  object  of 
philosophy  is  invariably  the  same,  and  each  of  the  systems 
has  contributed  its  share  to  the  solution  of  the  gigantic 
problem,  What  is  this  universe? 

In  the  volume  before  you,  I  have  made  the  attempt  to 
respond  to  this  question.  Reviewing  the  sciences  in  con- 
nection with  the  main  points  of  the  problem,  adhering- 
strictly  to  the  law  of  causality  and  the  method  of  induc- 
tion, I  believe  to  have  reached  a  definite  conception  of  the 
universe,  and  the  God  of  the  universe.  Therefore  I  con- 
sider this  a  fundamental  philosophy,  from  which  the  vari- 
ous philosophical  discipHnes  can  be  derived.  The  uni- 
verse, with  the  exception  of  matter,  which  is  a  very  small 
fraction  thereof,  appearing  to  me  synonymous  with  Deity, 
so  that  the  present  volume  is  in  the  main  a  new  evidence- 
of  the  existence  ot  Deity,  I  nave  called  it  The  Cosmic 
God,  in  whom  and  by  whom  there  is  the  one  grand  har- 
monious system  of  things,  in  whom  and  by  whom  nature- 
is  a  cosmos  and  no  chaos. 

I  know  well  that  this  is  not  the  God  of  vulgar  theology, 
nor  is,  it  the  God  of  Spinoza  or  Locke.  I  could  not  dis- 
cover either  of  them  in  my  researches  into  the  phenome- 
nal sciences  and  history.  Theologians  can  give  us  no  defi- 
nition of  Deity;  their  ideas  are  indefinite  and  vague,  and 
consequently  the  cause  of  atheism.  The  God  of  Spinoza 
and  Locke  is  submerged  in  nature,  so  that  nature  is  God, 
and  God  is  nature,  beyond  which  there  is  nothing.  The 
mfinite  has  become  finite  in  nature,  and  all  is  necessity. 
This  excludes  all  principles  of  freedom  and  ethics.  This 
pantheism,  falsely  calkd  so,  because  the  universe  is  infi 


PREFACE.  i 

nitely  more  than  all  objects  ot  nature,  in  the  minds  of  de- 
pendent thinkers,  changed  into  fatalism  and  materialism, 
lasts  heavily  upon  the  present  generation.  I  did  not 
arrive  at  either  of  those  conclusions  concerning  Deity, 
simply  because  as  free  as  possible  from  all  prejudices,  and 
from  the  present  state  of  the  sciences,  I  could  reach  The 
Cosmic  God  only.  If  it  is  not  the  God  of  modern  theol- 
ogy. He  is  God  after  all,  the  Eternal  Jehovah,  who  will 
be  worshiped  by  future  generations. 

THE  AUTHOR- 


COl^TEISTTS. 


Lecture. 

I.  Truth  and  its  Criterion, 

II.  The  Mind's  Receptivity  and  Spontaneity,    - 

III.  Mind  or  Brain,  .         .         .         .         . 

IV.  Human  Mind  actuahzed  in  its  Monuments, 
V.  Second  Lecture  on  same  subject, 

VI.  Homo-Brulalism  Reviewed,     - 

VII.  Homo-BrutaUsm — Reviewed  Anatorr.ically, 

VIII.  Homo-BrutaHsm-Reviewed  Psychologically 

IX.  Elementary  Ontology,       -  -         -         . 

X.  History  of  Materialism,         .         .         -         . 

XI.  Dynamic  Ontology,  .         .         .         . 

XII.  Biology,        .-.---- 

XIII.  Biology— Part  II, 

XIV.  Origin  of  Species,        .         .  .  .  . 
XV.  Teleology,         .-.-.. 

XVI.  Will  and  Intellect  in  Nature, 

XVII.  Superhuman  Will  and  Intellect  in  History, 

XVIII.  Superhuman  Will  and  Intellect  in  Histor}^ 
— Concluded,         .         .         .         .         . 

XIX.  Metaphysics. — i.  God  in  Nature.  - 

XX.  Metaphysics. — ii.  Nature's  God. 

XXI.  Nature  and  its  Relation  to  Deity.  - 

^XII.  Man  in  his  Relations  to  God  and  Nature.    • 


Page. 

9 

i6 

23 
32 
39 

47 

55 
,  62 

70 

■  77 
S5 
93 

lOI 

loS 
119 
127 

133 

14T 
149 

157 
165 

173 


THE 


COSMIC    GOD 


A  FUNDAMENTAL  PHILOSOPHY  IN 

POPUL.AR  LECTURES. 


LECTURE    I. 


TRUTH   AND   ITS  CRITERION. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen — The  object  of  the  course  of 
lectures  to  which  this  is  introductory  is  to  find  truth  by 
i;»e  instrumentality  of  inductive  philosophy.  It  is  now 
supposed  that  Hamlet  was  right  in  saying — 

"  If  circumstances  lead  me,  I  will  find 

Where  truth  is  hid,  though  it  were  hid  indeed 
Within  the  center." 

It  is  proposed  to  go  over  the  whole  ground  of  the  philo- 
sophical problems  which  concern  religion,  in  order  to  as- 
certain, after  a  fair  and  full  consideration  of  the  philoso- 
phy and  the  sciences  of  the  nineteenth  century,  what 
remains  to  be  held  up  as  the  religious  doctrine  of  honest 
and  intelligent  people,  without  conflict  with  the  intelli- 
gence of  this  enlightened  and  progressive  age ;  what  re- 


10  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

mains  to  be  constructed  into  the  religion  of  the  future 
generation.  Whatever  philosophy  and  science  have  over- 
come, is  dead,  and  the  dead  decays  by  its  own  inherent, 
law.  The  corpse  may  be  embalmed,  but  then  it  is  a. 
mummy.  It  is  pi'oposed  to  ascertain  the  living  elements 
of  truth.  Therefore  the  first  problem  to  be  solved  is,. 
What  is  truth,  and  which  is  its  criterion  ? 

"  What  mark  does  truth,  what  bright  distinction  bear  ? 
How  do  we  know  that  what  we  know  is  true  ? 
How  shall  we  falsehood  fly  and  truth  pursue  ?' ' 

What  is  truth  ?  Facts  and  objects  in  themselves  are 
neither  true  nor  false  ;  they  are.  Their  representations^ 
in  the  human  mind,  the  ideas,  may  be  true  and  false.  An 
idea  is  true  if  it  is  an  accurate  and  complete  mental  imago 
of  the  fact  or  object,  or  any  of  its  parts  or  attributes- 
which  it  represents.  A  negation  is  true  if  it  denies  that 
which  exists  not.  But  in  all  instances  ideas  only  are  true- 
or  false  ;  facts  and  objects  are  neither. 

The  accurate,  complete,  and  harmonious  knowledge  of 
all  facts  and  objects  is  truth.  The  Omniscient  only  is  in^ 
possession  of  abolute  truth.  In  man,  with  whom  knowl- 
edge is  necessarily  limited,  truth  is  relative  to  his  knowl- 
edge. In  man,  truth  is  the  accuracy,  completeness,  and 
harmony  of  the  facts  and  objects  of  his  cognition.  As  long 
as  one  has  no  accurate  and  complete  knowledge  of  the 
elements  of  his  cognition,  their  aggregate  must  be  defect- 
ive; it  is  not  truth.  Analysis  is  reason's  start  in  search 
of  truth.  If  the  elements  of  cognition  are  accurate  and 
complete  in  the  judgment  of  the  thinking  agent — but  they 
are  disharmonious,  bearing  in  themselves  the  germs  of 
contradiction — then  their  aggregate  is  not  truth.  The- 
want  of  harmony  in  the  cognitions  proves  their  in  accu- 
racy or  incompleteness.  Truth  is  synthetical.  It  is  the- 
unison  in  man's  cognition  and  cognitions.  You  see  all 
truth  is  ideal.  Take  away  self-conscious  intelligence^ 
and  there  is  no  truth. 

Harmony  in  the  elements  of  our  knowledge  is  the  cri- 
terion of  truth.  There  is  no  other.  Therefore,  in  order 
to  be  sure  that  what  we  know  is  true,  we  must  in  the- 
first  place  analyze  the  elements  of  our  knowledge ;  and 
where  this  is  possible,  compare  each  image  in  the  mind 
to  its  respective  realty,  within  or  without,  to  be  convinced 
of  their  identity,  and  then  control  each  idea  by  the  neces- 
sary harmony  among  ail  of  them, 


TRUTH   AND    ITS   CRITERION.  1  I 

Let  us  illustrate.  Every  person  of  eound  mind  and 
sense  has  some  ideas  of  the  shape,  bulk,  and  distance  of 
the  sun.  With  persons  who  have  no  astronomical  knowl- 
edge, these  ideas  are  usually  false,  although  they  have  ob- 
served the  sun  all  the  days  of  their  lives,  and  are  quite  sure 
of  their  sensations,  impressions,  and  perceptions  ;  because 
they  have  never  compared  their  ideas  with  the  correspond- 
ing realities.  Science  has  discovered  the  means  to  do  this, 
and  has  established  the  spherical  form  of  the  sun,  with  a 
diameter  of  850,100  miles,  107  times  the  mean  diameter  of 
the  earth;  with  a  bulk  600  times  as  large  as  that  of  all 
known  planets  together;  and  with  a  mean  distance  from 
the  earth  about  90,000,000  of  miles.  By  comparison  of  idea 
and  reality  their  identity  was  established. 

Now  suppose  that  a  person  ignorant  of  astronomy  be  told 
all  these  facts  and  numbers,  their  correlatives,  and  the 
scientific  process  by  which  they  were  establi-shed,  his 
knowledge  of  the  sun  would  still  be  incomplete,  because 
he  is  ignorant  of  the  mechanical  and  physical  constitution 
of  that  luminary,  as  spectrum  analysis  and  solar  photog- 
raphy have  revealed  it.  But  knowing  all  this,  he  finds  in 
his  mind  the  idea  of  the  sun  moving  around  the  earth, 
which  he  supposes  to  have  observed  repeatedly  and  clearly. 
Next  he  finds  in  his  mind  the  idea  that  the  larger  body  at- 
tracts the  smaller,  and  that  the  motion  of  the  sun  or  earth 
depends  on  the  bulk  of  matter  constituting  them  respect- 
ively. His  ideas  are  in  disharmony,  and  he  knows  at 
once  that  he  is  not  in  possession  of  truth.  His  cognit- 
ions require  correction,  until  they  are  harmonized,  and 
then  only  he  has  arrived  at  the  truth  of  the  matter.  All 
cognitions  of  the  individual  thus  harmonized  with  the  cog- 
nitions of  man  universally,  it  is  in  possession  of  truth,  as 
far  as  attainable  at  this  stage  of  history. 

This  illustration  proves  not  only  man's  innate  abilities 
of  coi'rect  comparison  and  judgment,  which  none  doubts 
who  admits  the  exactness  of  mathematics,  but  also  that  ho 
possesses  knowledge  which  has  not  reached  him  through 
the  avenues  of  his  senses,  neither  by  any  one,  nor  all  of 
them  in  co-operation.  All  known  facts  concerning  the 
solar  system  are  contrary  to  the  impressions  which  those 
bodies  make  on  our  senses.  Therefore  we  take  here  for 
granted  that  man's  knowledge  originates  but  partly  from 
the  impressions  received  through  his  senses,  while  it  orgin- 
ates  partly  from  some  other  scource.  We  call  this  other 
scource  mind,  spirit,  or  soul,  with  its  feelings,  volitions,  and 
intelligence.  Let  us  call  these  two  elements  in  our  knowl- 
edge, in  relation  to  their  origin,  the  sensual  and  the  men- 


12  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

tal.  Man  has  sensual  knowledge  of  what  he  perceives  by 
his  senses  and  mental  knowledge  of  what  he  brings  forth 
by  the  exercise  of  his  mind.  To  remain  within  the  limits 
of  our  illustration,  we  would  sa}'  he  knows  the  sun,  planets, 
and  moons  by  sensual  tuition ;  but  he  knows  their  shapes, 
bulks,  distances,  constitutions,  rotations,  and  relations  by 
mental  cognition. 

This  illustration  pi'oves  furthermore,  that  mental  cognit- 
ion is  superior  to  sensual  intuition  and  must  control  it. 
JIad  the  mind  not  corrected  the  jierceptions  of  the  senses, 
tlie  sun  would  still  appear  to  us,  as  to  all  the  animals,  a 
ilat  circular  section,  iorty  or  fifty  feet  in  diameter,  and  a 
lew  thousand  j-ards  above  our  heads.  This  is  a  stumbling 
block  to  gross  realism,  for  all  do  and  must  believe  verities 
wiiich  they  can  neither  see,  hear,  smell,  taste  or  touch,  and 
none  can  deny  the  exactness  of  mathematics.  It  is  no  less 
a  stumbling  block  to  scientific  realism.  While  you  listen 
to  what  I  say,  you  receive  by  the  sensual  organ  a  kno\yl- 
odge  of  words,  of  successive  articulate  sounds,  and  no 
more;  by  your  mind  you  grasp  the  knowledge  of  con- 
nected and  consecutive  thoughts,  propositions,  arguments, 
-evidence,  and  conclusions  which  stand  in  no  imaginable 
relation  to  the  air's  motion  caused  by  my  speaking,  as  little, 
indeed,  as  the  mere  sight  of  the  celestial  bodies  has  to  our 
knowledge  of  their  respective  distances,  magnitudes, 
rotations,  chemical  constituents,  etc.,  of  all  of  which  the 
animal  is  ignorant,  although  it  sees  the  same  bodies.  May 
I  be  permitted  to  add  that  the  materialist,  whatever 
forces,  en(3rgie8,  qualities,  or  attributes  he  may  consider 
inherent  in  matter,  tacitly  admits  the  existence  of  mind 
as  the  superior  source  of  knowledge,  as  often  as  he  attempts 
to  embrace  any  totality  of  phenomena  in  a  logical  formula. 

It  naturally  follows,  that  only  the  sensual  element  of  our 
"knowledge  consists  of  such  images  of  facts  or  objects, 
which  can  be  compared  to  their  corresponding  realties  out- 
side of  the  mind,  and  the  truth  of  which,  in  the  mind,  is 
established  beyond  doubt,  by  geometry,  arithmetic,  physics, 
chemistry,  &c.,  by  the  established  facts  of  natural  science. 
The  mental  element  of  our  knowledge  can  not  be  compar- 
ed with  such  realities,  because  it  consists  of  no  images 
thereof  With  the  man  of  history,  the  mental  element 
preponderates  over  the  sensual.  Not  by  the  intuition  of 
his  senses,  he  has  his  knowledge  of  God,  the  world  as  a 
cosmos  in  space  and  time  with  law,  cause  and  effect,  or  of 
man  as  a  race  which  makes  history,  or  of  the  relations  of 
God,  man,  and  world.  It  is  by  the  mental  process  that  ho 
Jc news  whatever  he  may  know,  affirms  or  denies  whatever 


TRUTH    AND  ITS   CRITERION.  13^ 

he  may  do  about  God,  man,  world,  and  their  relations. 
The  sensual  element  is  the  minimum  and  the  mental  is  the 
maximum  in  his  knowledge.  If  the  materialist  denies  the 
substantiality  of  the  mind,  he  must  nevertheless  admit  the 
reality  of  mental  cognitions.  For  aflSrming  or  denying  he 
exercises  his  mental  judgment.  In  either  case  he  must 
say,  I  think,  and  not  I  see,  hear,  smell,  taste,  or  touch  that 
your  propositions  about  God,  man,  world,  and  their  rela- 
tions are  true  or  ialse.  If  one  speaks  of  the  qualities- 
of  matter,  he  is  already  beyond  the  sphere  of  the  sensual 
element  and  deals  in  abstractions.  If  one  speaks  of  laws, 
mechanical,  physical,  or  physiological,  he  stands  upon  a 
ground  beyond  the  intuition  of  senses.  If  one  thinks  of 
religion,  morals,  government,  law,  art,  science,  taste,  feel- 
ing, thought,  will,  talent,  or  genius,  he  deals  in  mental  ele- 
ments exclusively. 

How  do  we  know  that  what  we  mentally  know  is  true? 
Is  reasoning  from  analogy  of  the  mental  and  sensual  ad- 
missible? Are  its  conclusions  reliable?  A  ball  will  roll 
down  aa  inclined  plane,  and  ideas  will  not.  The  associa- 
tion of  ideas  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  attraction  of 
cohesion,  Ecason  forms  no  judgment  by  mechanical  ac- 
tion. All  molecular  motion  of  the  brain  is  no  thought 
yet.  The  laws  of  mind  are  entirely  different  from  the 
laws  of  matter.  One  explains  not  the  other.  Therefore 
all  supposed  analogies  to  expound  mind  by  matter  or  vice 
versa,  the  sensual  by  the  mental  element  or  vice  versa,  are 
necessarily  false,  the  conclusions  to  which  they  lead  must 
be  illegitimate,  and  appear  so  also  to  the  materialist  who 
admits  the  existence  of  logic,  the  laws  of  which  have  noth- 
ing in  common  with  the  mechanical,  physical,  or  physiolog- 
ical. Therefore,  by  reasoning  from  analogy  we  can  not 
arrive  at'  any  certainty,  that  the  mental,  elements  of  our 
knowledge  are  true. 

Let  us  turn  the  question,  how  do  we  arrive  at  certainty 
that  the  sensual  elements  of  our  knowledge  are  true?  A  1 
human  senses  are  imperfect  and  liable  to  error.  They  are 
no  accurate  physical  apparatuses,  and  we  know  that  they 
ai*e  not.  In  numerous  cases  we  do  not  trust  our  senses, 
and  it  is  just  that  we  do  not,  or  we  would  still  see  in  the 
sun  a  flat  circular  section  thirty  or  forty  feet  in  diameter  a. 
few  thousand  yards  above  our  heads.  We  control  the  sen- 
sual impressions  by  mental  reflection.  We  compare  the 
preceptions  with  the  mental  ideas  present  in  the  mind,  un- 
til the  judgment  produces  harmony.  We  arrive  at  the 
certainty  of  shapes  and  distances  by  geometry,  of  numbers 
by  arithmetic,  of  constituents  by  chemistry,  of  qualities 


14  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

and  changes  by  physics,  always  by  mental  processes, 
controlling  and  correcting  Bfusual  impressions. 

On  the  other  hand,  avo  reverse  the  process  and  say,  the 
mental  elements  of  our  knowledge  must  be  controlled  and 
corrected  by  ttie  sensual,  uniil  tue  mind  arrives  at  the  har- 
mony of  both.  We  know  that  our  senses  are  imperfect 
])hysical  apparatuses;  hence  we  know  more  than  the  senses 
reveal,  and  wo  know  better.  This  plus  is  the  controlling 
power  of  all  sensual  intuitions.  On  the  other  hand,  we  see, 
hear,  smell,  taste,  or  touch  sensual  objects  as  sliaped  by  im- 
agination, and  know  that  they  are  outside  of  us,  as  they 
appear  to  us.  This  knowledge  of  external  realities  must 
control  and  correct  our  speculations.  Again  we  know  that 
we  know  all  tills  and  that  in  one  and  the  same  self-con- 
eciousness,  which  acquires  its  knowledge  of  God,  man, 
world,  and  their  relatio)i3  through  two  different  avenues, 
to  become  one  in  the  self-consciousness.  Hence  we  can 
consider  our  knowledge  correct  and  true,  only  if  each  idea 
is  in  harmony  with  all  the  others  in  the  same  self-conscious- 
ness. The  sensual  corrects  the  mental,  the  mental  corrects 
the  sensual,  the  process  is  reciprocal,  until  harmony  is  pro- 
duced, which  is  truth. 

The  sensual  elements  of  man's  knowledge,  composed  of 
the  images  of  material  nature,  formed  by  experience  or 
experiments,  controlled,  harmonized,  generalized,  and  syste- 
matized, and  reduced  to  laws  by  the  human  intellect,  is 
•culled  natural  science.  You  see,  in  science  the  sensual  ele- 
ment is  the  substratum,  upon  which  the  mental  works 
<;omparing  and  organizing.  Science  can  not  go  beyond 
its  sensual  substratum,  which  it  shapes.  The  mental  ele- 
ments of  the  mind,  composed  of  the  images  of  spirit,  with- 
in and  without,  formed  by  observation,  meditation  and  re- 
flection, controlled  and  corrected  by  the  sensual,  harmon- 
ized, generalized,  and  systematized,  i.^  called  philosopy. 
You  see,  in  philosophy,  the  mental  element  is  reason's  sub- 
stratum, upon  which  the  sensual  exercises  a  controlling 
and  correcting  influence.  Philosophy  is  boundless  as  the 
human  rnind,  and  limited  only  by  the  facts  of  science  and 
the  laws  of  logic. 

Here  again  the  same  criterion  of  truth.  As  long  as 
science  and  philosophy  contradict  one  another  in  any  point 
or  points,  their  dis-harmony  proves  inaccuracy  or  incom- 
pleteness of  cognition  on  the  one  side  or  the  other,  and  the 
necessity  of  correction.  Their  harmony  is  the  only  crite- 
rion of  truth  in  our  possession.  Say  in  plain  words,  exper- 
ience and  speculation  must  control  each  other,  and  their 
li:irmony  is  to  the  human  mind  the  criterion  of  truth  in 


TRUTH    AND    ITS    CRITERION.  15 

our  knowledge.  This  rule  will  guide  us  invariably  in  this 
<;our8e  of  lectures.  We  will  seek  harmony  in  science  and 
philosophy. 

That  the  things  outside  of  the  mind  really  exist,  can  not 
be  doubted  in  science  ;  hence  according  to  our  criterion  ot 
truth,  it  is  established  in  philosophy.  Imraanuel  Kant 
overthrows  Berkelej^'s  extreme  idealism  in  the  following 
thesis  :  "  the  mere  consciousness,  but  empirically  certain, 
of  my  own  existence,  proves  the  existence  of  objects  in 
space  outside  of  myself."*  To  prove  means  to  show  truth, 
in  the  light  of  certainty. 

We  add,  to  doubt  the  existence  of  things  outside  of  mind 
is  to  doubt  the  truth  and  exactness  of  mathematics.  If  so, 
I  must  doubt  every  thing!  know,  for  I  know  it  all  by  one 
apparatus  and  by  the  same  process.  If  my  knowledge  ot 
the  existence  ot  things  in  space  outside  of  me,  is  doubtful 
then  my  knowledge  in  general  is  doubtful,  and  this  partic- 
ular knowledge  also  must  be  doubtful;  hence  it  is  doubt- 
ful, that  my  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the  things  is 
•doubtful.  This  is  the  vicious  circle  of  skepticism,  which 
^t  the  last  instance  must  doubt  that  it  doubts. 

In  our  opinion,  man  is  gifted  with  all  the  powers  to  know 
truth  and  the  full  truth.  That  which  we  know  now  is  no 
criterion  of  what  man  will  know  after  ten  thousand  years 
of  history.  It  can  not  be  doubted  that  w^e  know  many 
things  as  certain  as  Descartes  knew  his  "Cogito.ergo  sum," 
and  to  know  for  certain  is  to  possess  truth  in  that  matter. 
Whatever  is  possible  is  one  department  of  our  knowledge 
is  possible  in  all  of  them.  Let  us  seek  truth  and  we  will 
-find  it  and  recognize  it  by  its  criterion. 

"  Truth,  like  a  single  point,  escapes  the  sight, 
And  claims  attention  to  perceive  it  right; 
But  what  resembles  truth  is  soon  descried, 
Spreads  like  a  surface,  and  expanded  wide." 


••■Lehrsatz — Das  blosse,  aber  empirish  bestimmte,  Bewusstein  meineseigencn 
Daseines  beweist  das  Dasein  der  Gegenstaende  im  Raum  ausser  mir. 


16  THE   COSMIC    GOD. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  MIND'S  KECEPTIVITY  AND  SPONTANEITY. 


Ladies  and  G-entlemen. — If  any  one  of  you  would  feet 
the  desire  of  presenting  to  your  friend  a  bouquet,  which  by 
arrangement  of  colors  and  disposition  of  leaflets,  should 
suggest  in  floral  language  your  feelings  and  thoughts,  you 
would  certainly  first  go  over  your  flower  beds  and  select 
among  Flora's  offspring  the  most  suitable  to  your  purpose, 
then  arrange  and  entwine  them  into  a  bouquet  to  your  taste 
and  wishes.  Please  imagine  that  I  wish  to  present  to  you 
a  bouquet  of  my  best  mental  flowers,  unfolding  to  you  my 
thoughts  and  feelings.  Must  I  not  first  go  over  my  flower 
bed  and  make  the  proper  selection  ?  I  only  invite  you  to 
accompany  me  on  a  walk  through  the  beautiful  garden  of 
human  nature.  Inductive  philosophy  is  a  systematic  struct- 
ure of  harmonizing  facts.  First  we  must  secure  the  facts, 
then  we  can  construct  the  philosophical  system.  The 
substratum  of  all  philosophy  is  the  mental  element  of  the 
mind  ;  hence  we  must  know  all  about  it  before  we  can 
philosophize.     First  the  flowers  and  then  the  bouquet. 

In  my  last  lecture  the  work  of  collecting  was  commenced. 
I  believe  I  have  established  that  truth  is  ideal;  it  is  in  self- 
conscious  intelligence  only,relative  and  in  proportion  to  the 
8U«m  of  each  individual's  knowledge  ;  that  this  knowledge 
consists  of  sensual  and  mental  elements  and  the  harmony 
of  these  elements  in  the  same  consciousness  is  the  criterion 
of  truth.  Let  us  see  now  how  the  mind  obtains  knowl- 
edge ; — how  do  we  come  to  know  what  we  know. 

The  knowledge  of  every  person  is  the  aggregate  of  sim- 
ple ideas,  as  none  can  think  more  than  one  idea  at  a  time, 
which  must  be  either  received  or  spontaneous.  Whatever 
one  learns  by  oral  in8truction,letters, symbols, or  examples 
consists  of  received  ideas.  Whatever  one  observes,  experi- 
ences, within  or  without,  discovers,  invents,  produces  by 
meditation  or  reflection,  is  his  own  ;  and  this  knowledge 
consists  of  spontaneous  ideas.  Postulating  mind  as  above, 
it  follows  that  knowledge  is  obtained  by  two  innate  capa- 
cities of  the  mind,  viz.:  Eeceptivity  and  Spontaneity. 


THE   mind's    receptivity    AND    SPONTANEITY.  17 

This  proposition  is  not  in  conflict  either  "with  John 
Locke's  or  Immanuel  Kant's  respective  theories.  John 
Locke  compares  the  soul  to  a  blank  sheet  of  paper,  upon 
which  will  be  that  which  will  be  written  or  printed  on  it. 
The  comparison  is  false  according  to'  Locke's  own  opin- 
ions. If  it  were  correct,  then  we  must  arrive  at  the 
knowledge  of  our  knowledge  and  its  elements  by  sensual 
observation  only,  so  that  if  one  had  no  corporeal  senses 
he  could  possess  no  knowledge  whatever,  not  even  self- 
consciousness.  This  assertion  is  empiric,  relies  on  exter- 
nal evidence,  and  yet  there  is  none  to  support  it.  There 
never  was  known  a  human  being  without  corporeal  sense ;. 
and  if  one  had  come  under  human  observation,  none 
could  have  ascertained  his  state  of  mind.  On  the  other 
hand  we  know  bow  the  mind  replaces  to  some  extent  a 
missing  sense  or  senses,  by  the  augmented  abilities  of  the 
others,  as  among  lower  animals  lost  limbs  are  replaced,  or 
teeth  in  young  people,  b}'"  the  inherent  organic  force. 
The  sense  of  touch  or  hearing  with  some  blind  people  is 
perfectly  wond^'ful  and,  to  a  great  extent,  replaces  the 
lost  sense  of  vision  to  the  very  distinction  of  colors.  The 
facts  collected  in  asylums  for  the  deaf,  dumb  and  blind, 
ho>v  senses  or  even  limbs  replace  each  other's  activity 
and  energy,  by  the  internal  organic  force,  are  popularly 
known  and  need  not  be  reproduced  here. 

The  fact  is  that  Locke  himself  protests  only  against  in- 
nate maxims,  in  his  time  called  innate  ideas,  adduced  then 
to  mystic  speculations  of  all  kinds ;  but  he  denies  not 
the  mind's  innate  capacities  to  know  truth,  or  else  nobody 
could  possibly  know,  that  there  is  any  truth  in  sensual  in- 
tuitions .  What  are  those  innate  capacities  of  the  mind, 
which  Locke  admits,  enabling  the  mind  to  know  truth  ? 
They  cannot  be  merely  mechanical  or  chemical  appara- 
tuses to  grasp,  extort,  press  out  or  boil  out  truth  or  sen- 
sual impressions.  They  can  be  ideas  only  which  are  in 
the  mind,  conscious  or  unconscious,  with  which  the  new 
incomers  are  associated  by  their  identity,  or  they  are  re- 
pelled as  false  by  their  dissimilarity.  If  so,  the  compari- 
son to  a  sheet  of  paper  is  erroneous,  for  the  capacities  ot 
the  mind  are  active  and  essential,  while  the  capacities  of 
the  paper  are  passive  and  accidental.  Again,  if  so,  there 
are  ideas  in  the  mind  prior  to  sensual  intuition,  which 
must  be  spontaneous,  besides  those  produced  by  medita- 
tion ;  so  that  if  there  ever  had  been  a  man  without  any 
corporeal  sense,  he  would  still  have  thought  over  his  own 
ideas  or  the  imagery  of  his  phantasy,  as  we  see  daily  al- 
most ignoraut  people  do. 

u 


18  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

Therefore  Kant,  who  had  been  considerably  influenced 
by  Locke's  Essays,  felt  compelled  to  supplement  Locke's 
theory  bj-  the  fact  that  we  arrive  at  the  knowledge  of  our 
knowledge  and  its  elements  by  inductive  reasoning,  start- 
\ucr  from  a  priori  ideas  in  the  mind,  to  which  the  judg- 
ment compares  every  new  idea  acquired.  The  process 
appears  somewhat  m^-sterious,  but  it  only  appears  so.  I 
Avill  try  to  show  its  simplicity  and  beauty. 

But  if  there  were,  on  this  particular  point  any  disa- 
greement between  Locke  and  Kant,  Eealism  and  Idealism, 
it  would  not  impair  my  proposition.  For  if  innate  ideas 
he  denied  to  the  mind  by  any  process  of  reasoning,  its 
spontaneity  must  still  be  admitted,  or  else  original  ideas, 
inventions,  and  art  would  be  impossible.  An  analysis  of 
the  process  how  man  acquires  knowledge  affords  us  a 
clear  insight  into  the  m3-sterious  laboratory.  Here  ai'e 
facts  perfectlj"  mysterious  and  miraculous,  and  yet  as  plain 
as  the  seven  colors  of  the  rainbow. 

Every  Avord  spoken,  if  attention  is  paid  to  it,  forms  an 
idea  in  the  hearer's  mind.  Speaking  produces  waves  in 
the  air  in  "the  same  manner  as  a  stone  cast  into  the  water 
forms  successive  rings  on  its  surface.  These  waves  reach 
your  ear,  penetrate  to  its  labyrinth,  excite  nerve  and 
ganglion,  set  certain  brain  fibres  in  a  tremulous  motion, 
and  become  ideas  in  your  mind.  How  are  airy  waves 
transformed  into  ideas  ?  In  speech  as  in  music  Ave  hear 
no  more  than  detached,  simple  sounds  following  one  an- 
other in  a  more  or  less  rapid  succession  ;  and  yet  the 
mind  forms  of  these  detached  sounds,  consecutive  thoughts 
or  melod}',  a  complete  story,  argument,  or  harmonious 
and  melodious  music.  Where  or  what  is  the  mystei-ious 
force  to  pi'oduce  the  perfect  unity  of  those  detached 
sounds?  Here  are  spontaneous  processes  of  the  mind, 
neither  learned  nor  acquired,  which  produce  ideas  and  a 
unity  of  ideas  from  mere  detached  sounds. 

The  sameTs  the  case  with  sight.  The  eye  sees  not  the 
body  which  is  the  object  of  vision  but  the  rays  Avhich  the 
illuminated  body  reflects,  and  not  all  of  them,  indeed,  but 
those  which  fall  upon  the  cornea,  and  even  some  of  these 
are  reflected,  while  the  others  pass  converged  into  the 
aqueous  humor,  then  through  the  pupil,  and  impinge  up- 
on the  lens,  traverse  the  viterous  humor,  and  are  brought 
to  a  focus  upon  the  nervous  tunic,  the  hind  wall  of  the 
eye,  and  there,  as  it  Avere,  is  photographed  a  small  and 
exact  but  inverted  image  of  the  object  seen.  We  pass  by 
the  wonders  of  this  most  complicated  organ  and  the  mys- 
tery, how  by  a  particular  composition  and  arrangement 


THE    mind's   receptivity  AND   SPONTANEITY.  19 

of  elementarj'  matter,  blind  and  thonghtless  material  is 
made  to  see  and  receive  ideas,  and  consider  for  a  moment 
the  most  mj'sterious  facts  of  the  process.  How  are  ideas 
led  to  the  mind  b}^  a  few  rays  of  light?  You  read  a  book 
i.  e.  you  see  certain  rays  of  light  reflected  from  the  page, 
and  3'our  mind  receives  at  the  same  time  the  thoughts, 
the  wisdom,  the  highest  and  deepest  researches  of  Moses 
or  Aristotle,  king  Solomon  or  Darwin.  "Where  is  the 
connection  between  your  mind  and  the  black  spots  on 
the  page  called  letters  ?  Where  is  the  connection  between 
those  black  spots  on  the  one  hand  and  the  author's  mind 
on  the  other  ? 

The  same  inexplicable  mystery  folloAvs  the  act  of  vision 
throughout  life.  You  see  material  objects,  they  jDass  away, 
but  their  images,  the  ideas,  are  retained  in  the  mind. 
How  can  the  objects  seen  form  an  idea  in  the  mind  ? 
How  are  material  objects  transformed  in  a  twinkle  of  the 
eye  into  ideas  which  are  purely  mental  ?  How  does  the 
mind  retain  or  reproduce  them  at  various  times,  compare, 
classify,  and  unite  them  to  general  conceptions  ?  From 
Aristotle  to  this  daj',  the  philosophers  have  attempted  in 
vain  the  final  solution  of  this  mystery,  and  yet  the  same 
mystery  precisely  attaches  to  every  corporeal  sense  and 
each  sensation. 

Y''ou  see  if  Locke  and  the  realists  maintain  that  we  ar- 
rive at  the  knowledge  of  our  knowledge  and  its  elements 
by  sensation  they  have  explained  nothing,  for  they  must 
stop  short  before  the  mystery  of  sensation  and  the  un- 
known transformation  of  material  objects  into  purely 
mental  ideas. 

Our  theory,  however,  explains  the  matter  as  far  as  this 
is  possible.  "\Ye  maintain,  the  mind  is  the  apparatus 
which  by  its  innate  capacities,  ideas  themselves,  receives 
and  produces  ideas.  External  objects,  internal  feelings, 
emotions  and  affects  are  mere  impulses,  or  if  you  please 
symbols,  to  the  mind,  to  set  in  motion  corresponding 
ideas  present  in  the  mind.  Without  these  impulses  the 
mind  would  not  form  those  ideas,  i.  e.  it  would  not  be- 
come conscious  thereof;  but  then  it  would  form  others 
and  similar  ones;  it  would  work  upon  the  images  of  phan^ 
tasy  as  children  and  ignorant  persons  often  do,  but  think 
it  must  as  the  sun  must  shine.  Therefore  persons  of  two 
or  even  one  corporeal  sense  do  think,  as  experience  teach- 
es, and  are  capable  of  education. 

As  far,  then  as  we  know  by  experience,  the  mind  de- 
pends not  in  all  cases  on  the  senses,  for  the  knowledge  of 
its  knowledge    and  the    elements   thereof.     It  possesses 


20  THE    COSMIC  GOD. 

knowledge  and  exeix-iscs  functions  independent  of  the 
senses.  The  senses,  however,  depend  on  the  functions  of 
the  mind.  We  know  that  the  eye  sees  not  the  objects  of 
sight.  It  could  possibly  see  the  image  momentarily  im- 
pressed    on  the    nervous    wand;  but  this  is  exceeding!}?- 

» dimunitive,  flat  and  inverted,  the  very  thing  which  we 
see  not;  hence  the  eye  seps  not;  it  is  a  mere  instrument 
for  another  apparatus  of  vision,  as  the  spectacles,  the 
microscope  and  telescope  are  artificial  eyes  for  the  eye. 
The  optic  nerve,  the  ganglia  and  the  brain  fibres,  in  the 
cavity  of  the  head  beyond  the  reach  of  light,  certainly 
can  not  see,  as  there  can  be  no  vision  without  light. 
Hence  the  legitimacy  of  the  question,  what  sees  ?  I  have 
knocked  at  the  door  of  all-  physicists  and  jshysiologists 
and  none  gave  me  a  satisfactory  answer,  what  sees  ? 
Therefore  1  could  only  fall  back  upon  our  theory,  the 
mind  sees.  Every  body  almost  knows  that  many  a  day 
a  number  of  objects  and  persons  pass  his  sight  without 
his  notice,  and  the  same  is  the  case  with  hearing  and  all 
other  sensations  ;  because  he  paid  no  attention  to  them, 
because  his  mind  did  not  see  or  hear,  it  was  otherwise  en- 
gaged, and  none  can  think  two  ideas  at  the  same  time. 
How  does  the  mind  see  or  hear  and  retain  the  objects 
perceived  ?  or  in  other  words,  how  is  matter  transformed 
into  purely  mental  ideas?  Matter  becomes  perceptible 
to  the  senses  by  its  qualities,  i.  e.,  by  the  ideas  which  it 
represents.  Each  quality  is  an  idea.  Thus  every  object 
represents  a  number  of  ideas  which  it  embodies.  The 
mind  perceives  not  matter  itself,  but  the  simple  ideas 
which  it  represents,  and  combines  them,  to  a  unit  identi- 
cal with  the  object  of  sensation,  as  shaped  by  the  imagi- 
nation. The  intelligence  then  forms  the  word  and  the 
imagination  the  corresponding  picture.  Therefore  we 
cannot  perceive  chaos,  it  represents  no  ideas  ;  and  where 

.but  one  idea  presents  itself,  as  in  the  air,  w^esee  nothing 
except  this  one  idea. 

How  does  the  mind  know  that  the  word  and  picture 
thus  tormed  are  correct,  identical  with  the  object.  Here 
tome  in  Kant  s  a  priori  Begriffe,  or  Locke's  innate  capaci- 
ties of  the  mind  to  know  truth,  together  with  my  criter- 
ion ot  truth.  Matter  is  not  transformed  into  mind,  for 
we  perceive  only  the  ideas  which  it  embodies.  The  same 
18  tne  case  not  only  with  all  sensual  intuitions,  but  also 
Tf  u-  u^^®^?^^  sensations,  feelings,  emotions,  and  affects 
ot  Which  we  become  conscious  only  if  the  mind  forms  the 
Ideas  to  which  they  give  the  impulse;  if  we  know  not 
pain,  we  have  none  j  if  we  know  not  joy,  we  feel  none. 


THE    mind's   receptivity   AND   SPONTANEITY.  21 

You  see,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  the  great  problem,  how 
do  "we  obtain  our  knowledge,  how  do  we  come  to  know 
what  we  know,  can  be  solved  only  b}'  the  word  3iind. 
The  mind  with  its  capacities  of  receptivity  and  sponta- 
neity accounts  for  our  knowledge.  It  might  be  urged, 
that  a'll  animals  must  possess  mind,  which  we  have  no 
reason  here  to  deny  or  discuss.  I  will  investigate  this 
subject  in  another  lecture.  Here  I  must  j'et  say  in  con- 
clusion, that  materialists  have  attempted  another  solu- 
tion of  this  problem;  but  I  discuss  this  in  the  next  lec- 
ture. To  foreshadow  coming  arguments,  I  call  your  at- 
tention to  the  following  passage  in  Prof.  Tydall's  Inaugu- 
ral Address  called  "  Advancement  of  Science  "  (Xew  York 
edition,  page  49  : 

'•  Thus  far  our  way  is   clear,   but  now  comes  my  diffi- 
culty.    Your  atoms  are    individuallj'  without  sensation, 
much  more  are    they    without  intelligence.     May  I   ask 
you,  then,  to  try  your    hand  upon  this  problem.     Take 
your  dead  hydrogen    atoms,  your   dead   oxygen    atoms, 
your  dead  carbon  atoms,  your  dead  nitrogen  atoms,  your 
de;id  phosphorus  atoms,  and  all  the  other  atoms,  dead  as 
grains  of  shot,   of  which  the  brain  is  formed.     Imagine 
them  seperate  and  sensationless  ;  observe  them   running 
together  and  forming    all  imaginable  combinations ;  this 
as  a  purely   mechanical  process,  is  seeahle  hy  the   mind. 
But  can  yc%  see,  or  dream,  or  in  any  way  imagine,  how 
out  of  that  mechanical  act,    and  from  these  individually 
dead  atoms,  sensation,  thought,  and  emotion  are  to  arise? 
You  speak,  of  the  difficijlty  of  mental  presentation  in  my 
case;  is  it  less  in   yours?     I  am    not    all  bei'eft  of  this 
Yorstellungs-kraft  of    which    you  speak.     I  can  follow  a 
particle  of  musk  until  it  reaches  the   olfactory  nerve;  I 
can  follow  the  waves  of  sound  yntil  their  tremors  reach 
the  water  of  the  labyrinth,  and  set  the  otoliths  and  Cor- 
tis  fibers  in  motion  ;  I  can  also  visualize  the  waves  either 
as   they  cross  the  ej'e    or  hit  the  retina.      Nay,    more,  I 
am  able  to  follow   up  to  the    central   organ    the    motion 
thus  imparted  at   the  periphery,  and  to   see  in  idea  the 
very  molecules  of  the  brain    thrown  into  tremors.     My 
insight  is  not  baffled  by  these  physical  processes.     "What 
baffles  me,  what  I  find  unimaginable,  transcending  every 
faculty  I  possess — transcending,  I  humbly  submit,  every 
faculty  you  possess — is  the  notion  that  out  of  those  phy- 
sical tremors  you  can  extract  things  so  utterly  incongruT 
ous  with  them,  as  sensation,  thought,  and  emotion.     You 
may  say,  or  think,  that  this  issue  of  consciousness   from 
the  clash  of   atoms    is  not    more  incongruous  than    the 


22  THE    rOS.MrC    GOD. 

flash  of  liglit  from  the  union  of  oxygen  and  hydrofijon. 
But  I  hoii;  to  say  it  is.  For  such  inconijruity  as  the  flash 
possesses  is  that  which  I  now  force  upon  your  attention. 
The  flash  is  an  afl'airof  consciousness,  the  objective  coun- 
terpart of  which  is  a  vibration.  It  is  a  flash  only  by  our 
interpretation.  You  are  the  cause  of  the  apparent  in- 
conc^ruity;  and  you  are  the  thing  that  puzzles  me.  I 
need  not  remind  you  that  the  great  Leibnitz  felt  the  dif- 
ficulty which  I  feel,  and  that  to  get  rid  of  this  monstrous 
deduction  of  life  from  death  he  displaced  your  atoms  by 
his  monads,  and  which  were  more  or  less  perfect  mirrors 
of  the  universe,  and  out  of  the  summation  and  integra- 
tion of  which  he  supposed  all  phenomena  of  life — sen- 
tient, intellectual,  and  emotional — to  arise.  Your  diffi- 
culty, then,  as  I  see  you  are  ready  to  admit,  is  quite  as- 
great  as  mine.  You  can  not  satisfy  the  human  under- 
standing in  its  demand  for  logical  continuity  between 
molecular  processes  and  the  phenomena  of  consciousness. 
This  is  a  rock  on  which  materialism  must  inevitabl}"  split 
whenever  it  pretends  to  be  a  complete  philosophy  of  life."" 


MIND   OR   BRAIN.  23 


LECTURE  III. 


MIND  OR  BEAIN. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — If  a  stranger  coming  to  this 
city  should  not  know  its  name,  and  on  inquiry  be  told 
by  every  body  asked,  it  is  Cincinnati,  he  would  certainly 
be  obliged  to  believe  it  on  account  of  the  common  consent 
pointing  to  a  fact  otherwise  probable.  In  case,  however, 
that  stranger  should  dispute,  the  fact,  it  would  be  his 
task  to  prove  that  all  his  informants  were  in  error.  We 
Cincinnatians  would  only  say,  ask  any  body  else  and  he 
will  tell  you  that  this  is  Cincinnati.  The  same  precisely 
is  the  ease  with  the  materialistic  hypothesis,  "  The  brain 
thinks."  The  vastest  majorities  of  all  civilized  and  half 
civilized  nations,  ancient  and  modern,  and  among  them 
the  most  prominent  men  of  all  ages  of  authentic  history 
have  believed  and  established  philosophically,  "  The 
mind  thinks,"  hence  the  materialist  denying  this  must 
furnish  the  evidence  in  support  of  his  theory. 

Besides  we  know  already  that  every  natural  object  pre- 
sents itself  to  human  cognition  by  the  ideas,  inherent  in 
the  object  represented.  .  So  there  is  ideality,  or  spirit- 
uality, if  you  please,in  every  natural  object,  or  else  man 
could  not  possibly  conceive  it. 

Again,  if  man  is  the  object  of  our  observation,  we  must 
hold  up  steadily  before  our  mind,  two  distinct  kinds  of 
qualities. 

He  presents  to  us  bodily  qualities  and  peculiarities,  by 
which  we  know  him  as  a  material  object — and  a  charact- 
er; he  is  kind,  generous,  magnanimous,  unselfish,  heroic, 
pious,  moral,  sympathetic,  intelligent,  genial,  loving, 
amiable,  wise  or  otherwise,  and  in  all  that  we  contem- 
plate qualities  which  have  not  the  least  similarity  to  the 
qualities  of  matter.  We  contemplate  his  mental  and 
moral  character,  and  each  of  us  is  conscious  that  he  is  in 
possession  of  similar  qualities.  Therefore  if  the  materi- 
alist denies  mind,  it  is  for  him  to  prove  that  the  qualities 
which  make  the  particular  character  of  man  are  inherent 
in  matter,  and  having    succeeded  in  this,  he  must  prove, 


24  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

that  the  qualities  of  matter  are  material,  and  not  idealis- 
tic or  spiritualistic,  as  we  maintain  ;  and  having  succeed- 
ed in  all  this,  he  must  furnish  us  at  least  with  a  probable 
theory  of  sensation,  perception,  conception,  and  cognition; 
which  all  materialists  admit,  they  can  not  do. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  discuss  hei-e  this  problem  in 
all  its  bearings  :  I  restrict  my  remarks  to  the  simple 
proposition:  Materialism  with  its  physical,  mechanical, 
and  chemical  laws  does  not  and  can  not  account  for  the 
knowledge  of  our  knowledge  and  its  elements ;  and 
wherever  the  attempt  is  made,  it  takes  invariabl}'  the  ef- 
fect for  the  cause..  Physiological  functions,  which  are 
evidently  effects  of  some  cause,  are  invariably  and  un- 
philosophically  held  up  as  causes  of  that,  of  which  they 
appear  as  effects,  and  must  apj^ear  so  to  the  strictest 
scientist. 

Please  cast  a  glance  upon' this  keynote  of  all  material- 
istic physiology  : — "The  brain  is  the  seat  and  organ  of 
thought," — Mr.  Buechner  exclaims:  "Its  quantity,  form, 
and  chemical  peculiarities  are  in  direct  ])roportion  to  the 
greatness  and  force  of  its  mental  functions." 

If  all  this  were  true,  as  it  is  not,  it  would  prove  just  as 
well,  that  the  brain  is  the  organ  of  the  thinking  mind, 
which,  in  proportion  to  its  greatness  and  force,  provides 
itself  with  an  adequate  organ,  as  the  organic  force  pro- 
vides a  stomach  for  the  animal  adequate  to  its  bulk.  Or 
it  would  prove  that  in  jDroportion  with  the  mind's  activity 
of  any  individual,  the  blood  supplies  the  brain,  which 
accordingly  increases  in  bulk,  improves  in  shape,  and  ab- 
sorbs from  the  blood  the  best  molecules  for  its  purpose, 
as  do  the  blacksmith's  arms  or  the  mountaineers  legs. 
In  both  cases,  however,  mind  is  the  cause  and  brain  the 
effect.  Is'o  phj'siologist  has  examined  the  brain  before 
it  thought  and  then  observed  its  stages  of  improvement 
with  the  progression  of  mind,  to  establish  scientifically 
upon  facts  observed,  how  thoughts  and  judgments  grow 
out  of  certain  brain  cells,  filled  up  or  divided  in  the  pro- 
cess of  growth.  But  if  that  could  be  done,  we  would 
still  be  ignorant  on  the  point  of  cause,  for  we  would  have 
effects  only.  The  brain  is  not  its  own  cause,  that  is  cer- 
tain; and  if  it  wei*e  only  the  cause  of  thought,  it  must  bo 
able  to  contemplate  itself,  as  is  evidently  the  nature  of 
mind;  yet  nobody  knows  his  own  brain  or  could  ever 
contemplate  it  except  by  comparison  with  other  brains. 
We  maintain,  the  action  of  the  brain  has  a  cause  and  is 
an  effect;  and  the  materialist  maintains,  it  is  a  causeless 
cause,  certainly  in  all  spontaneous  thoughts  and  original 
ideas.     It  is  an  anomaly. 


MIND   OR   BRAIN.  25 

How  does  the  materialist  arrive  at  his  brain  hypothe- 
sis? By  comparison  of  the  human  brain  with  that  of 
animals,  and  various  human  brains  among  themselves. 
Let  us  see  what  the  facts  are.  The  quantity  of  brain  is 
no  proof  of  superior  intellect,  for  the  whales  brain,  ac- 
cording to  Rudolphi,  weighs  five  and  one-third  pounds, 
two  pounds  more  than  the  largest  human  brain;  and  the 
elephant,  according  to  Perault,  cai-ries  nine  pounds  of 
brain  in  his  skull.  Still  nobody  maintains  that  those 
animals  are  man's  equal  in  intelligence.  E.  Wagner  has 
given  the  subject  a  thorough  investigation,  and  has  tab- 
ularized  the  brains  of  a  thousand  persons  according  to 
weight.  It  was  discovered  that  (^^mwell,  Byron,  and 
C'uvier  had  the  heaviest  brains,  although  none  will  seri- 
ously maintain  that  they  were  the  most  intellectual  men; 
and  far  below  them  in  weight  are  classed  some  of  the  most 
eminent  reasoners.  If  the  big  head  would  make  the  wise 
man,  then  the  hatter  must  be  the  best  judge  of  human 
intelligence.  The  proportion  of  brain  weight  to  human 
intelligence  must  evidently  be  dropped. 

Kext  comes  the  proportion  of  brain  to  the  bulk  of  the 
body,  which  they  say  decides  the  intelligence.  Man  has, 
in  proj)ortiou  to  his  body,  the  heaviest  brain.  So  the 
materialists,  Avith  due  politeness,  save  female  intelligence, 
as  woman's  brain  is  lighter  than  ijian's,  but  it  is  in  pro- 
portion to  her  body.  If  that  proportion  were  true,  then 
man  stands  l)elow  many  little  birds  in  the  scale  of  intel- 
ligence; and  according  to  Cuvier,  also  below  sevex*al 
iamilies  of  monkeys,  whose  brain  stands  in  jjroportion 
to  their  bodies  as  one  to  twenty-eight,  one  to  twenty-four, 
or  even  one  to  twenty-two  ;  while  with  man  the  relation 
is  as  one  to  thirty,  or  even  thirty -five.  Unfortunate  in 
this  direction  is  the  observation  of  Volkman,  that  the 
smallest  and  young  animals  have  relatively  the  largest 
brains,  so  that  in  animals  there  is  no  proportion  between 
intellect  and  the  size  of  the  brain;  consequently  every 
conclusion  of  this  kind  from  animal  to  man  is  certainly 
illegitimate.  Worse  than  this  are  the  simple  facts  well 
known  of  bees,  wasps,  ants,  and  spiders,  which  have  no 
brain  at  all,  and  yet  their  intelligence  is  admired.  If 
the  nerve-knots  of  those  little  creatures  secrete  intelli- 
gence, then  it  is  independent  of  brain  anyhow. 

It  must  be  remarked  here  that  the  proportion  of  the 
spinal  column  to  the  diameter  of  the  brain  also  is  not  in 
favor  of  man,  for  in  man  this  proportion  is  as  seven  to 
one,  and  in  the  dolphin,  according  to  Cuvier,  as  thirteen 
to  two,  or  as  six  and  eleven-twelfths  to  one  according  to 
Thiedraan. 


26  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

Next  comes  the  argument  derived  from  the  pro))ortion 
of  the  cerebellum  to  the  cerebrum  and  its  convolutions. 
AVeight,  we  have  seen,  decides  nothing.  Still  it  is  main- 
tained that  man's  cerebrum,  having  the  most  and  deep- 
est convolutions,  and  being  so  much  larger  in  proportion 
to  the  cerebellum,  than  in  any  animal,  therefore  man 
possessee  so  much  more  intellectual  power.  Longet,  how- 
ever, states  plainly  that,  according  to  Cuvier's  and 
Leuret's  results  in  this  research,  the  proportion  of  cere- 
brum to  cerebellum  is  no  reliable  phenomenon,  as  this, 
would  place  man  intellectually  on  a  level  with  the  ox^ 
and  even  below  thaSapaju. 

In  regard  to  the  involutions  it  must  be  remarked 
that  an  ancient  physician,  Erasistratus,  maintained  that 
convolutions  are  more  numerous  in  man's  brains  than  in 
any  other,  because  man  jiossesses  intelligence  and  tho 
animal  does  not.  Galenus,  howfever,  refutes  this  hypoth- 
esis; he  shows  that  the  brain  of  the  ass  has  numerous- 
convolutions  without  beai'ing  any  particular  reputation 
for  prominent  intelligence.  Leuret  ,and  Gratiolet,  whc> 
gave  this  matter  particular  attention,  show  that  many 
mammals,  standing  intellectually  as  high  as  others,  havo 
no  convolutions  in  the  brain;  and  Leuret  especially  de- 
nies the  Avhole  theory  based  upon  the  convolutions.  But 
suppose  the  fact  established  that  the  most  intellectual 
beings  show  the  most  and  deepest  convolutions  of  the 
brain,  what  does  it  amount  to?  Certainly  no  more  than 
this,  that  the  activity  of  the  intellect  leaves  its  impress 
on  the  brain.  Convolutions  can  not  think,  since  they 
are  nothing  but  empty  furrows  which  work  no  change  in 
the  internal  construction  of  the  brain. 

What  is  the  actual  value  of  the  whole  argument  tak- 
en from  the  morjjhology  of  the  brain  ?  It  is  intended  to 
prove  that  man's  superior  intellect  is  observeable  in  the 
superior  construction  of  his  brain,  consequently  the 
brain  is  the  cause  of  the  intelligence.  But  the  first  mem- 
ber of  the  proposition  is  by  no  means  certain,  as  we  have 
seen  man's  brain  can  not  boast  of  any  distinction  so 
marked  as  to  account  for  his  superior  intelligence.  If  it 
did  actually  bear  all  the  morphological  distinction  claimed 
it  would  still  not  be  established  that  the  brain  is  the 
cause  of  intelligence.  It  would  not  lead  one  step  beyond 
our  starting-point,  unless  it  be  proved  that  brain  matter 
secretes  thought,  that  the  purely  material  substance 
brings  forth  the  purely  mental  thought,  or  in  other  word.^ 
that  matter  is  changed  into  mind.  And  also  then  the 
question   would    arise,  whether   the   mind   flashing  forth 


MIND   OU   BRAIN.  2T 

from  the  action    of  organic  matter  is  not  an  individual 
dj'namic  force,  self-existing  and  imperishable. 

Driv^en  from  morphology,  the  materialist  resorts  to 
chemistry  and  pathology  to  make  good  his  assertion.  It 
is  the  peculiar  chemical  composition  which  constitutes 
the  superiority  of  the  human  brain.  Commonly  brain 
contains  seventy-five  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  water,  sev- 
en per  cent,  albuminous  matter,  eleven  and  *one-half  per 
cent,  of  fat,  one  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  phosphoric, 
and  four  and  one-half  per  cent.  of  other  salts. 
The  proportion  of  these  constituents  varies  in  different 
brains.  The  brains  of  insane  persons  were  found  de- 
creased in  weight  as  low  as  two  pounds,  and  the  salts, 
especially  phosphoric  acid,  were  much  exhausted.  There- 
fore Moleshot  exclaimed,  "No  thought  without  phosphor- 
us." Liebig  contradicted  it;  and  Bibra,  who  made  this 
point  a  special  study,  refuted  the  whole  chemical  theory, 
as  practical  jahysicians  of  insane  asylums  did  with  the 
pathological  point.  Phosphoric  acid  is  a  compound  of 
phosphorus  and  oxygen,  hence  no  thought  without  oxy- 
gen. This  is  indeed  too  trivial  and  frivolous  a  point  to 
be  discussed.  For  after  we  know  full  well  the  chemical 
constituents  of  eveiy  brain,  we  have  not  yet  the  remotest, 
idea  how  elementary  matter  so  arranged  and  mixed  can 
think.  We  still  deal  in  effects,  and  bandage  our  eyes  to 
the  cause.  After  we  know  all  pathological  effects  on  the 
brain,  wo  are  no  wiser  than  before,  because  we  know  not 
the  cause  which  produces  the  degeneracy  of  the  brain. 

You  see,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  there  is  not  one  estab- 
lished point  in  morphology,  chemistry,  or  pathology 
which  justifies  the  assertion  that  the  brain  thinks  without 
a  dynamic  force  at  its  foundation  for  which  it  is  the  or- 
gan. Let  us  now  see  whether  any  thinking  person  can 
form  a  clear  and  intelligent  idea  how  the  brain  thinks. 
The  sensations,  by  the  aid  of  the  senses,  nerves,  and 
ganglia,  impress,  or  rather  imprint  upon  the  brain  images 
which  represent  ideas,  so  that  there  are  as  many  im- 
prints on  the  tissues  of  the  brain  as  we  have  ideas,  re- 
ceived through  the  senses  from  without  or  the  feelings 
from  within.  This  is  the  materialistic  theory  of  sensa- 
tion, which,  in  my  opinion,  is  as  unphilosophical  as  it  is 
unscientific.  It  rests  neither  upon  facts  observed  nor  up- 
on any  sort  of  legitimate  speculation.  For  in  the  first  place 
the  mind  is  not  passive  to  receive  impressions  as  wax  ox* 
plaster  of  Paris.  If  the  mind  makes  no  assertion,  pays 
no  attention,  it  receives  no  impressions  by  the  senses. 
And  in  the  second  place,  not  one  impression  of  the  brain 


28  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

has  been  microscopically  examined  and  identified  with 
any  idea  whatever  ;  still  this  alone  would  justify  the 
theory  and  give  it  a  scientific  aspect.  The  facts  of 
phrenoloij}',  as  far  as  they  are  established,  prove  nothing 
in  this  direction,  and  are  entitled  to  no  other  legitimate 
conclusion  than  this  :  Either  particular  faculties  of  the 
mind  require  certain  inborn  brain  organs  through  which 
U)  operate,  or  those  faculties  by  exercise  and  exertion  de- 
velope  certain  brain  parts  more  fully  and  ])rominently.    . 

The  theory-  fares  worse,  the  closer  we  inspect  and  ana- 
lyze it.  Unphilosophical  minds  imagine  the  whole  pro- 
cess a  sort  of  telegraph  without  telegraphist.  The  sen- 
ses telegraph  their  impressions  to  the  brain  via  the  sen- 
sory nerves,  and  the  brain  telegraphs  back  its  decision 
and  will  via  the  motor}^  nerves.  Thej'  do  not  trouble 
themselves  with  the  questions,  how  colors,  odors,  feel- 
ings, or  even  sounds  can  be  telegraphed,  or  where  the 
battery  has  been  discovered,  how  it  is  fod,  and  excited  to 
action  by  sensations,  feelings  or  volitions.  But  they  go  on 
and  say,  that  every  sensation  makes  its  imprint  on  the 
brain,  to  remain  there  until  crowded  out  by  others,  when 
the  former  are  forgotten.  It  never  occurs  to  their  minds, 
that  the  supposed  telegraphing  process  actually  explains 
nothing  and  is  a  mere  play  on  words;  for  after  all  the 
making  and  retaining  of  the  impressions  in  the  brain 
and  their  appearance  in  the  consciousness  are  no  less 
wonderful  and  unaccounted  for  than  without  the  tele- 
graphing hj'pothesis.  . 

Let  us  examine  a  little  closer.  The  particles  of  the 
body,  hence  also  of  the  brain,  are  subject  to  perpetual 
change.  According  to  modern  experiments,  the  whole 
body,  every  particle  thereof,  is  completely  changed  in 
every  two  years.  Tnerefore  one  should  think,  that  the 
brain  atoms  with  all  impressions  on  them  are  subject  to 
the  same  change.  Now,  if  one  or  more  atoms  in  a  man's 
brain  bear  the  image  of  his  wife,  the  aton^  or  atoms  being 
gone  two  years  after  his  marriage,  the  brain  record  being 
wiped  out,  that  man  must  not  only  forget  that  he  ever 
was  married,  but  he  must  be  incapable  of  recognizing 
his  wife.  Yet  memor}^  leads  us  back  to  the  very  morn 
of  childhood,  the  dawn  of  consciousness,  and  no  honest 
man  forgets  his  wife,  or  his  obligations. 

Says  the  materialist,  the  particles  change  but  not  the 
individual ;  .the  form,  the  morphe,  remains  unchanged  so 
also  the  brain  impressions,  although  small  scars  on  the 
«kin  will  certainly  disappear  altogether.  Let  us  see,  how 
that  is  possible.     The  impression  must  be  somewhere  in 


LUND    OR   BRAIN.  29 

in  the  bi*ain,  and  the  particle  or  atom  bearing  it  must  leave 
some  time,  to  be  replaced  by  another  deposited  there  by 
the  blood.  We  can  only  imagine  the  parting  atom  has 
the  politeness  or  kindness,  to  inform  its  successor  of  the 
particular  record  Avhich  it  bears.  But  then  every  atom 
mnst  be  intelligent,  and  man  has  as  m.any  souls  as  his 
brain  has  atoms.  The  elementary  matter  of  the  brain 
differing  in  no  wise  from  other  matter,  it  follows  that  all 
atoms  ai"e  intelligent;  ergo  the  universe  consists  of  intel- 
ligent atoms,  or  to  speak  intelligibly,  say,  what  we  ideal- 
ists call  matter,  is  imaginary  only,  it  is  all  intelligence, 
all  mind  ;  the  universe  is  an  e  pluribus  unum,  a  conglom- 
eration of  atomistic  minds,  each  very  small,  of  course,  but 
with  some  extension  after  all.  The  only  difficulties  are, 
to  account  for  irrationality  of  inorganic  matter,  and  the 
harmony  in  the  cosmos  of  those  infinite  numbers  of  in- 
telligence atoms.     Is  this  absurd  enough  to  refute  itself? 

Look  upon  the  matter  from  another  point,  if  you  please. 
Man  has  judgment.  No  materialist  denies  this.  Judg- 
ment, so  to  say,  presides  over  the  ideas,  compares,  com- 
bines, or  separates  them,  hears  their  testimony,  and  dis- 
tinguishes between  truth  and  error,  right  and  wrong, 
good  and  evil,  etc.  This  is  evidently  no  oflspring  of  sen- 
sual intuition.  Where  in  the  brain  is  that  judgment? 
Says  the  materialist,  it  is  in  the  brain  center,  in  the  sen- 
sorium,  as  though  science  could  furnish  any  knowledge 
about  it,  anatomical,  physiological,  chemical,  mechanical 
or  physical.  Still  let  us  suppose  for  a  moment,  there  is 
such  a  thing  actually  as  a  brain  center  or  sensorium  gift- 
ed with  the  function  of  judgment.  It  can  be  no  vacuum 
hence  it  must  consist  of  one  or  more  atoms  gifted  with  the 
capacity  of  judgment.  Science  has  no  knowledge  of  such 
atoms.  Plato  had  his  ideas,  Liebnitz  his  monades,  the' 
dualist  his  soul,  and  the  materialist  his  particular  atoms 
gifted  with  judgment ;  where  is  really  the  difference  ? 

But  there  comes  in  again  the  fact  of  perpetual  change 
of  matter,  the  tissue  metamorphosis,  inseparable  from 
organic  life.  Now  the  question  is  simply  this,  are  those 
judgment  atoms  also  liable  to  this  process  or  are  they 
not.  If  they  are  not,  then  we  have  in  man  an  imperish- 
able, intelligent  judgment — gifted  something,  not  liable 
to  change,  which  the  materialist  calls  a  particular  atom 
and  we  call  it  mind,  spirit,  soul ;  the  thing  is  the  same, 
and  our  dispute  is  amicalaly  settled,  But  if  judgment 
atom  or  atoms  are  subject  to  the  same  law  as  others,, 
they  must  be  replaced  from  time  to  time  by  the  blood, 
i.  e.  the  blood  must  prepare  those  particular  atoms  and 


30  THE    COSMIC    GOn. 

deposit  them  ut  tlie  right  time  in  the  proper  place.  Then 
the  jutlgmeiit  is  in  the  blo(xl,  whicli  the  brain  '.-an  neither 
control  nor  direct,  its  circulation  beinjij  independent  of  the 
brain  action.  But  the  bh)od  depends  on  stomach  and 
lunj:;,  lience  tlie  seat  of  judgment  is  in  the  stomach  and 
in  the  lung.  But  these  two  organs  depend  on  food  and 
atmosphere  foi-  all  atoms  received  and  sent  to  the  blood  : 
er</o  the  seat  of  judgment  is  in  the  food  and  the  atmos- 
pheric air.  I  hope  Prof.  John  Tyndal  will  comprehend  tile 
absui-dities,  in  which  atomism  must  finally  land. 

Last  though  not  least,  the  original  question  turns  up 
again  ;  viz  :  if  we  admit  all  alleged  facts  and  conclusions 
of  materialism,  how  do  we  know  that  what  w^e  know  is  ' 
true?  All  human  senses,  as  physical  apparatuses,  are 
notoriously  defective;  we  know  that  they  are,  and  justly 
mistrust  them.  Thej*  do  not  perceive  all  phenomena  in 
nature,  nor  do  they  always  perceive  '-orrectly.  Therefore 
we  must  assist  our  senses  with  various  instruments,  and 
also  control  one  by  another.  Then  the  sensory  nerves 
lead  the  sensations  to  the  brain.  Are  they  reliable? 
We  know  no  difference  of  texture  of  the  optic,  auditory 
and  olfactory  nerves,  although  their  functions  are  so  en- 
tirely different;  how  can  we  know  the  reliability  of  the 
nervous  function  ?  AVe  know  they  are  subject  to  changes 
and  impairing  influences,  and  like  the  senses  they  can  be 
vastly  improved  b}'  practice.  Where  is  the  certainty, 
that  the  nerves  lead  correctly  the  images  of  sensation  to 
the  brain?  There  is  none.  Then  the  brain  itself  is  not 
excepted  from  all  those  deficiencies.  Imagination  over- 
powers it,  and  it  sees,  hears,  feels,  or  smells  nonentities. 
Sleep  overcomes  it  and  it  dreams  fictions.  In  a  state  of 
hallucination  it  takes  phantasmagories  for  realities.  A 
glass  of  wine  dianges  its  function.  Where  is  the  guar- 
antee, that  senses,  nerves,  ganglia,  and  brain  perceive 
correctly?  There  is  none.  Imperfect  organs  can  not 
form  perfect  ideas.  The  common  consent  of  many  or  all, 
in  this  relation,  proves  nothing,  as  all  are  the  same  men 
with  the  same  deficient  organ's  of  sensation.  If  one  su- 
perior to  man  would  assure  us  that  we  see  the  things 
•correctly:  we  might  be  induced  to  believe  him  ;  but  if  we 
tell  one  another,  it  amounts  to  nothing  in  reality. 

Here  evidently  intelligence,  mind  is  necessary,  to  con- 
trol senses,  nerves,  ganglia,  and  brain,  to  judge  and  cor- 
rect the  sensual  intuitions.  This  is  the  ultimatum; 
either  it  must  be  admitted,  the  mind  controls  and  cor- 
rects the  sensual  intuitions,  or  it  must  be  confessed,  that 
all  science,  mathematics  included,  is  uncertain,  and  unre- 


MINU    OH    UKAIN.  31 

liable.  No  sound  reasoner  Avill  admit  this  latter  alterna- 
tive; therefore  the  knowledge  of  our  knowledge  and  its 
elements  necessitates  us  to  acknowledge  the  existence  of 
mind. 

"We  have  now  the  whole  force  of  circumstantial  evi- 
dence on  the  side  of  the  mind  as  the  bearer  of  intelligence, 
and  could  dismiss  this  subject.  We  have  found  a  starting 
point  to  our  system:  There  is  mind.  But  I  mean  to  go 
beyond  thfs,  and  seek  conclusive  and  final  evidence  for 
our  postulate,  and  then  build  upon  it  deductivelj'"  a  sys- 
tem of  philosoph}'  as  fur  and  as  well  as  1  am  capable  of 
solving  the  problems. 


32  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 


LECTURE    IV. 


HUMAN  MIND  ACTUALIZED  IN  ITS  MONUMENTS. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen, —  The  scientist  tells  us,  this 
material  universe  consists  of  matter  and  force,  withoiijb 
confessing  that  we  know  not,  to  any  degree  of  certainty, 
outside  of  the  mind's  final  decisions,  whether  their  qual- 
ities are  in  matter  or  in  the  mind  which  thinks  them. 
Again  the  absolute  natui*e  of  force  is  beyond  the  present 
powers  of  experimental  science.  We  call  force  any  cause 
which  produces  or  tends  to  produce  a  change  in  a  body's 
state  of  rest  or  motion,  and  define  its  statical  or  dynami- 
cal measure,  without  any  knowledge  of  the  substance  or 
quodity  of  force.  Still  we  speak  with  perfect  certainty  of 
the  existence  of  gravitation,  cohesion,  elasticity,  chemical 
affinity,  and  the  other  forces,  because  we  observe  their 
influences  on  matter  and  the  changes  produced;  and  the 
mind  is  certain  of  the  law    of  causality. 

I  will  not  trouble  you  now  with  an  examination  of  the 
law  of  causality,  although  I  will  have  to  do  it  some  other 
time;  I  will  merely  call  your  attention,  in  the  first  place, 
to  two  points: 

1.  We  have  no  knowledge  of  the  substance  of  any 
natural  force,  and  »«-empiric  knowledge  of  the  existence 
of  any.  Wvv>r. 

2.  Postulating  the  law  of  causality  we  arrive  induct- 
ively at  the  conclusion  that  any  force  exists,  because  it  is 
actualized  in  a  phenomenon. 

Take  away  point  second,  and  science  is  impossible; 
especially  as  the  main  object  of  all  science  is  to  discover 
the  laws  of  nature  by  the  guiding  compass  of  the  law  of 
causality. 

Please,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  let  us  change  terras  for 
a  httle  while  Let  us  put  mind  in  place  ?f  force,  and 
call  it  mind-force  Then  let  us  put  in  place  of  the  phy- 
sical  such  mental  phenomena  in   which   mind-force   is 


MIND    OR   BRAIN.  33 

actualized.  Let  us  contemplate  those  monuments  in 
■whicJ*'*Sbe  human  mind  has  become  permanently  objec- 
tiv4ran«l^  expect  we  shall  arrive  at  the  conclusion: — 

By  the  application  of  the  strictest  scientific  method, 
basing  upon  the  law  of  causality,  to  the  monuments  of 
the  human  mind,  its  existence  is  proved  beyond  a  doubt. 

Which  are  the  main  monuments  or  mental  phenomena 
in  which  the  human  mind  has  become  permanently  objec- 
tive? I  answer:  language,  history,  art,  science,  religion, 
and  philosophy. 

In  the  various  (about  twelve  hundred)  languages  the 
spirit  of  man  has  become  objective,  crystalized,  photo- 
graphed, concrete,  and  tangible.  Whatever  a  nation 
thought,  felt  or  did,  the  character,  intelligence,  occupa- 
tion, aspiration,  ethical  and  aesthetical  feelings,  the  whole 
of  man  of  every  age  and  clime  is  portrayed  in  the  nation's 
dialect  or  dialects.  Every  language  contains  the  history 
of  its  originators. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  animals,  and  birds,  especially, 
have  the  use  of  language,  to  which,  I  must  add,  they  pos- 
sess the  capacity  of  uttering  certain  sounds  which  were 
erroneously  called  language.  These  are  simply  vowel 
sounds,  which  do  not  go  beyond  the  interjection.  This 
is  not  language.  Man  utters  four  kinds  of  sounds,  com- 
monly called  screaming,  whistling,  singing  and  speaking, 
of  which  the  latter  only  consists  of  articulate  sounds. 
Most  of  the  animals  scream,  some,  and  especially  birds, 
whistle;  very  few  of  them  possess  the  capacity  of  singing 
rythmical  melody.  In  all  cases  the  utterances  consist  of 
simple  vowel  sounds,  without  discernable  consonants. 
Man  only  possesses  all  the  capacities  of  uttering  sounds, 
and  produces  language  by  the  combination  of  vowels  with 
consonants ;  which  no  animal  does.    • 

Syllables  are  vowels  encased  in  consonants,  and  every 
language  consists  of  its  syllables;  therefore  man  alone 
possesses  language.  There  ai*e  physiological  causes  for 
this  phenomenon,  which  I  can  not  explain  now. 

The  main  characteristic  of  language  is,  the  almost  in- 
finite combinations  of  about  twenty-five  consonantal 
sounds  with  the  vowels.  Language,  you  see,  is  combina- 
tion, the  offspring  of  judgment,  to  express  intelligibly 
man's  ideas.  The  substance  of  language  is  not  in  the 
elementary  sounds ;  A  B  C  is  no  language ;  it  is  in  the 
free  combination  thereof  to  express  ideas.  There  is 
nothing  material  in  it;  it  is  all  actualized  mind.  In  form 
language  is  grammatical,  and  must  be  so  to  be  language. 
It  must  have  substantive,  verb,  and  adjective,  subject, 
3 


34  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

object,  and  copula,  cases,  persons,  and  tenses.  The  gram- 
matical form  is  as  inseparable  from  the  substance  of  lan- 
guage as  form  is  from  organic  matter  in  an}*  organism. 
Therefore  it  is  certainly  an  error  to  speak  of  the  lan- 
guage of  animals.  Still,  in  this  connection,  it  could  make 
no  difference  to  us  if  animals  had  language.  It  would 
merely  prove  that  animals  must  possess  mind ;  and  the 
superiority  of  human  language  would  be  the  evidence  of 
the  superiority  of  the  human  mind.  Anyhow  language 
would  be  the  monumentof  actualized  mind.  We  claim 
no  more. 

There  are  two  mysteries  connected  with  language  which 
however,  explain  one  another.  I  refer  to  the  origin  and 
and  common  intelligibility  of  language.  How  did  men 
understand  each  other's  sounds?  How  do  we  understand 
one  another?  How  are  sounds  or  signs  converted  into 
ideas?  I  know  of  but  one  reply  to  this  query:  The 
mind  possesses  the  innate  ability  to  form  words  for  ob- 
jects, feelings,  etc.,  and  the  necessity  of  representing  them 
by  sounds  or  signs.  Therefore  the  woi'd  spoken  or  read 
excites  the  mind  to  form  a  corresponding  idea,  and  the 
idea  is  instantly  actualized  in  the  word  >vhicli  caused  it, 
80  that  every  word  heard  or  read  with  attention  is  the 
cause  of  the  rise  of  the  corresponding  idea  in  the  listening 
or  reading  subject.  Therefore  we  do  not  retain  words  of 
which  the  mind  has  formed  no  definite  idea,  so  that  the 
word  is  actually  dead.  It  is  precisely  the  same  as  with 
sensation  in  general.  The  outward  object  can  not  enter 
the  mind.  It  gives  the  impulse  to  the  formation  of  a  cor- 
responding idea  in  the  mind,  of  which  the  imagination 
shapes  the  image,  and  the  intelligence  furnishes  the 
word. 

It  follows,  therefore,  that  the  mind  makes  words  also, 
without  having  seen  or  heard  them,  as  children  and  deaf 
mutes  frequently  make  words  of  their  own.  The  objects 
of  sensation  necessitate  the  mind  to  form  ideas  which 
must  be  marked  by  Avords.  If  we  ask,  how  did  language 
originate?  The  reply  is  simple  and  given  correctly  in 
the  Bible.  When  Adam  saw  the  various  animals,  his 
mind  was  necessitated  to  form  ideas  of  them,  which  be- 
came images  in  his  imagination  and  words  in  his  intelli- 
■gence.  So  language  originated,  man  named  objects,  ac- 
tions, relations,  feelings,  and  thoughts;  and  it  is  of  divine 
origin  only  as  far  as  man's  mind  is.  The  languages  and 
dialects  have  their  origin  in  the  geographical  separation 
of  the  various  tribes.  Also  in  this  point  the  Bible  ad- 
vances the  correct  idea. 


MIND   OR   BRAIN.  35 

Language  is  not  the  product  of  mechanical  brain 
•action.  This  is  evident  from  the  freedom  in  the  choice 
of  sounds  and  combinations  to  denote  the  same  object  in 
various  tongues  and  dialects.  There  is  no  freedom  im- 
aginable in  connection  with  mechanical  causes.  If  we 
even  admit  that  the  utterance  of  elementary  sounds,  as 
with  animals,  is  the  effect  of  mechanical  brain  action; 
the  combination  of  sounds  to  denote  objects,  etc.,  requires 
judgment,  free  choice,  definite  and  conscious  purpose, 
for  which  no  kind  of  mechanism  is  imaginable.  Ed.  von 
Hartman  commits  the  error  of  confounding  the  origin  of 
a  language  with  the  origin  of  the  words  constituting  it. 
Words  are  produced  consciously :  the  Iano;uage  is  built 
up  unconsciously  by  countless  individuals  who  contri- 
buted to  its  wealth.  It  is  no  less  an  error,  although 
Pi'ofessor  Steinthal  also  adopted  it,  that  the  feelings  were 
the  primary  causes  of  language.  The  mechanical 
screams  caused  by  feelings  are  simple  interjections, 
whose  signification  is  in  the  peculiarity  of  the  sound,  and 
not  in  the  definite  idea  conveyed  by  any  word ;  and  lan- 
guage consists  of  such  words.  The  O  !  or  Ah !  may 
convey  the  idea  of  joy,  pain,  admiration,  surprise,  aston- 
ishment, longing,  or  almost  any  other  feeling,  depending 
altogether  on  the  momentary  sound.  Men  could  never 
begin  to  understand  one  another  by  the  tradition  of  the 
mere  modulations  of  indefinite  sounds.  Only  after  a 
feeling  or  sensual  impression  had  become  an  idea  in  the 
mind,  the  adequate  word  could  have  been  formed,  to 
rouse  in  other  minds  the  corresponding  idea,  say  of  any 
tree,  animal,  or  love,  hatred,  etc;  not  because  tree  or 
animal  excited  a  feeling,  but  because  it  conveyed  a  num- 
ber of  ideas  to  the  mind  of  which  it  produced  a  unity  in 
one  word.  The  same  process  is  observable  in  children. 
The  origin  of  language  can  neither  be  thought  nor  im- 
agined without  the  pre-existence  of  judgment,  hence  of 
mind. 

Here  then  is  a  phenomenon,  a  grand  effect  purely 
mental.  Here  are  your  twelve  hundred  different  lan- 
guages and  dialects.  Here  are  your  libraries,  the 
millions  of  books  and  manuscripts,  containing  the  highest 
wisdom  of  man.  Here  are  j^our  inscriptions  on  stones, 
tombs,  pyramids,  bricks  and  coins,  reaching  clear  back 
to  the  cradle  of  humanity.  Here  are  facts  without  pre- 
cedent or  parallel  in  organic  or  inorganic  nature,  grand, 
original,  and  eminently  human,  monuments  in  which 
hnman  mind  has  become  objective  in  such  incalculable 
quantity,  that  we  can  think  of  no  number  to  designate 


36  .  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

the  ideas  crystalized  therein.  la  these  monuments  the 
objectivity  of  the  human  mind  stands  before  our  intelli- 
gence as  clear,  undeniable,  doubtless,  concrete,  and  tan- 
gible as  static  or  dynamic  force  in  any  physical  phenom- 
enon of  daily  occurrence ;  and  no  naturalist  can  justly 
tell  us  that  our  induction  from  mind-phenomena  is  less- 
legitimate  or  less  certain  than  his  induction  of  force  fron\ 
phj'sical  phenomena. 

The  next  monument  of  the  actualized  mind  is  history. 
History  is  the  term  under  which  we  understand  a  narra- 
tive of  the  experience  of  the  human  family;  what  man 
did  and  suffered,  established  and  destroyed,  gained  and 
lost,  together  with  all  means  employed  against  uproar- 
ious and  destructive  elements,  his  combat  against  hostile 
and  ferocious  beasts,  his  wars,  defeats,  victories,  the  en- 
tire life,  ^developement,  progressions,  retrogressions,  and 
triumphs  of  the  human  race,  in  which  the  fates  and  ex- 
periences of  individuals,  tribes,  and  nations,  and  the 
records  of  governments,  churches,  institutions,  sciences, 
arts,  and  philosophy  are  like  the  members  of  one  grand 
organism,  each  of  which  is  inseparable  from  the  whole, 
which  is  an  organic  unit.  The  substance  of  history  is 
the  human  mind  actualized,  and  all  institutions  are  its 
framework.  Mind-force  has  produced  myriads  of  mental 
phenomena,  which,  in  their  totality,  are  the  history  of 
the  human  race. 

If  we  go  back  three  centuries  only  in  this  country,  we 
have  before  our  mind  an  unbroken  wilderness  of  forests 
and  prairies  from  ocean  to  ocean,  with  a  few  thousand 
sons  of  the  desert,  who  fought  the  same  battles  against 
the  elements  and  beasts,  as  thousands  of  years  ago  the 
whole  human  family  did.  All  were  like  the  savage  In- 
dians and  in  much  lower  conditions,  still  more  helpless 
as  we  come  down  to  the  stone  age,  although  not  all  at 
the  same  time  precisely.  If  now  we  compare  our  flour- 
ishing country  with  its  free  government,  its  laws,  insti- 
tutions, farms,  gardens,  villages,  cities,  works  of  art  and 
genius,  highways,  canals,  railroads,  industry,  commerce, 
prosperity,  security,  peace,  and  confidence,  to  the  state 
of  affairs  three  hundred  years  ago,  we  have  an  index  to 
the  history  of  mankind,  which  took  probably  five  thous- 
and to  six  thousand  years  to  pass  through  all  those 
phases  of  developefnent,  to  reach  the  culture  and  civili- 
zation of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  history,  we  behold  the  human  mind  crystalized  in 
deeds.  Just  think  of  the  vast  amount  of  thought  ex- 
pended,, of  inventions  made,  of   schemes    and  projects- 


MIND   OR   BRAIN.  37 

7)ropo8ed,  of  calculations  and  combinations  spun  out, 
before  the  soil  was  conquered  for  the  plough,  the  forces 
and  materials  of  nature  subjected  to  human  hands,  and 
man  was  sufficiently  cultivated  to  govern  himself  and 
the  objects  of  physical  nature.  It  is  uncountable,  incal- 
culable, almost  infinite ;  and  yet  every  idea  is  permanent, 
and  the  best  ones  are  imperishable  in  history,  as  the 
atoms  of  this  physical  world.  As  this  earth  consists  of 
its  atoms  by  the  inherent  force  of  cohesion,  so  history 
.  consists  of  innumerable  ideas  coherent  by  their  internal 
force  of  psychical  affinity,  which  we  will  call  the  Genius 
of  History.  As  the  coal  fields  now  utalized,  contain  in 
the  materialized  form,  the  heat  issuing,  many  thousands 
of  years  ago,  from  the  sun,  and  combining  with  the  car- 
bon ;  so  the  original  ideas  of  all  individuals  and  ages 
were  actualized,  so  to  say  materialized,  to  be  preserved 
intact  as  the  ever  progressive  history  of  man. 

Every  body  almost  knows,  that  there  is  at  the  bottom 
of  man's  doings  and  omissions  the  law  of  self-preserva- 
tion and  the  preservation  of  the  race,  together  with  the 
social  instinct,  which  man  has  in  common  with  animals. 
But  this  explains  not  the  Genius  of  History;  for  these 
animal  qualities  did  not  make  history,  did  not  produce 
the  thoughts  and  inventions  which  are  the  substance  of 
history ;  nor  did  they  combine  and  connect  them  to  the 
organic  unit  of  cause  and  effect,  as  history  presents,  upon 
the  pinnacle  of  which,  as  its  last  and  legitimate  result, 
appears  the  facit  jn  the  civilization  and  culture  of  this 
nineteenth  century.  Animals  with  those  instincts,  and 
in  many  instances  demonstrably  stronger  than  man's, 
oflTer  no  history  and  no  material  of  history,  with  the 
slightest  analogy  to  what  we  have  just  defined  as  man's 
history.  One  must  forcibly  and  willfully  bandage  his 
mental  eyes,  if  he  maintains  not  to  see,  that  physiological 
causes,  Darwinism  or  no  Darwinism,  can  not  and  do  not 
account  for  the  history  of  man.  Physical  and  mechani- 
cal causes  are  certainly  out  of  question,  where  uncount- 
.able  millions  of  free  agents,  each  woi'king  out  his  own 
destinj",  first  and  foremost  taking  care  of  himself,  sepa- 
rated in  time  and  space,  and  mostly  knowing  nothing  or 
little  of  one  another,  still  work  out  one  common  destiny, 
one  logos  of  history,  one  and  the  same  end,  aim  and  pur- 
pose of  perpetual  progression,  and  continnal  perfect- 
ation,  a  unit  of  purpose  as  is  the  earth  a  unit  of 
atoms.  Here  physical  and  mechanical  laws  find  no 
application. 

Therefore,  I  ask,  what  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  pyramid 


38  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

of  history?  which  is  the  force  uniting  the  isolated  ideas 
of  all  the  millions  to  the  one,  incomparable  and  admir- 
able structure?  Mind,  mind,  mind  !  there  is  no  other 
answer,  no  other  key  to  solve  this  mystery.  It  is  mind- 
force  which  produces  these  phenomena  and  their  most 
wonderful  union.  Here  are  the  phenomena  and  induc- 
tion from  them  to  their  cause  is  certainly  as  legitimate 
here  as  in  natural  science.  If  scientists  would  studj- 
philology,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  term,  and  history 
more  carefully,  there  could  be  no  materialism. 

We  must  postpone  the  discussion  of  the  other  topics  to 
our  next  lecture.  Before  we  close,  I  must  say,  that  here 
lies  one  fault,  and  it  is  a  serious  one  of  our  American 
colleges  and  universities ;  they  neglect  philology  and 
history.  The  principle  of  immediate  utility,  concrete 
selfishness,  advances  materialism  and  superstition  as  the 
necessary  extremes.  Enlightened  minds  think  clearly 
and  independently ;  utilized  brains  are  self-supporting 
machines.  Students  must  be  first  enlightened  minds,, 
pillars  of  truth. 


MIND    OR   BRAIN.  39 


LECTURE    V. 


hu:man  mind  actualized  in  its  monuments. 

PART  II. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — Let  us  spend  a  short  time, 
in  the  conclusion  of  our  subject,  investigating  the  monu- 
ments in  which  human  n^ind  has  become  actualized,  let 
us  take  into  consideration  art  and  science,  religion  and 
philosophy.  None  can  think  of  the  fine  arts  without  con- 
necting them  with  talent,  to  construct  a  harmonious 
unit  from  elaborate  details;  or  genius,  to  conceive  har- 
monious unitj^  spontaneously,  neither  of  which  can  be 
conceived  without  the  principle  of  mind,  and  a  high 
degree  of  ideality  therein.  More  even  than  the  fine  arts, 
the  mechanical  and  useful  arts,  in  connection  with 
science,  demonstrate  the  existence  of  mind,  a  power  in 
man  superior  to  all  natural  foi'ces  known  to  science, 

Linne  advanced  the  hypothesis,  the  vegetable  kingdom 
is  the  final  cause  of  the  earth.  The  graminivorous  ani- 
mals were  made  to  crop  off  the  superfluous  grass,  the 
carniverous  to  lin\it  the  increase  of  the  former,  and  man 
to  keep  the  latter  within  proper  bounds.  The  only  ques- 
tion not  answered  is.  Why  did  the  earth  not  limit  the 
increase  of  plants  by  her  own  energies,  and  save  the 
trouble  of  bringing  forth  man  and  beast?  I  have  to  add, 
if  such  was  the  intention  of  dame  nature,  then  she  made 
a  grievous  mistake,  for  man  governs  and  exterminates 
not  only  most  of  the  animals  not  specially  useful  to  him, 
but  also  numerous  families  of  the  vegetable  kingdom  by 
the  progress  of  agriculture,  which  gradually  subjects  the 
earth's  habitable  surface  to  the  hands  of  man. 

If  anything  on  this  earth  besides  man  was  creation's 
final  cause,  then  man  frustrates  that  intention.  The 
agriculturist  or  mariner,  craftsman  or  mechanic,  contin- 
ually counteracts  the  earth's  primary  designs,  and  gov- 
erns natural  forces,  as  the  lightning-rod  bids  defiance  to 


40  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

the  shock  of  the  electric  current,  steam  to  the  force  of 
gravitation,  electricity  to  distance,  optical  instruments  to 
the  weakness  of  the  eye,  under  the  hands  of  man  and  his 
creative  genius.  True,  the  mind  creates  no  material, 
but  it  brings  forth  ideas;  it  invents  combinations,  appro- 
priates and  applies  matter  and  is  forces;  it  is  creative 
power  after  all. 

By  the  practical  arts,  which  reach  far  beyond  the 
records  of  history,  down  into  the  stone  age,  man  becomes 
free  and  makes  himself  the  lord  of  the  earth.  As  he 
progresses  in  science  and  art,  he  extends  his  dominion, 
increases  his  prosperity  and  comfort,  enlarges  his  sphere 
of  knowledge  and  enlightment,  and  subjects  all  things  to 
his  purposes.  If  there  is  anything  in  the  book  of  Genesis 
which  deserves  more  admiration  even  than  Mr.  Haeckel 
lavishes  on  the  Mosaic  account  of  creation,  it  is  the 
blessing  which,  it  is  said  there,  the  Creator  bestowed  on 
man:  "And  subdue  it  (the  earih),  and  have  dominion 
over  the  fishes  of  the  sea  and  tlie  birds  of  the  air,"  etc., 
which  inspired  the  poet  to  sing  the  beautiful  Psalm  viii. 
Now,  in  this  age  of  hydro-oxygen  gas  and  electric  light, 
of  spectrum  analysis,  solar  photography,  microscopic  and 
telescopic  researches,  now  those  words  are  intelligle  to  us. 
Yes,  in  this  age  of  the  Suez  Canal,  St.  GoMiard  and 
Pacific  railroads,  transmarine  cables,  swimming  palaces 
on  rivers  and  oceans,  and  flj'ing  mansions  on  terra-firvia, 
we  see  clearly  how  the  spirit  of  man  has  wrestled  all 
night  with  the  spectre  of  dark  and  dire  necessity,  and 
man  has  prevailed  ;  although  lame  yet,  still  the  sun  has 
risen,  and  he  has  prevailed.  It  hardly  need  be  said  any 
more  than  man's  prosperity  and  progress  depend  on  his 
success  in  the  subjugation  of  matter  and  its  forces  to  the 
creations  of  the  mind,  or  that  these  successes  are  achieved 
with  every' passing  day,  as  every  intelligent  child  might 
know  and  even  see  it. 

Again,  as  it  is  the  object  of  the  practical  arts  to  sub- 
due and  govern  matter  and  its  forces,  it  is  the  object  of 
science  to  discover  the  laws  of  nature  which  govern  ele- 
ments aud  forces,  aud  by  incorporating  them  in  man's 
consciousness,  enlarge  his  sphere  of  knowledge,  and  en- 
lighten his  understanding.  Every  new  discovery  is  an 
idea  added  to  the  wealth  of  the  mind,  which  discovers 
the  law  in  the  correlation  of  ideas  and  the  constancy"  of 
phenomena.  The  more  discoveries  the  better  we  are 
enabled  to  construct  laws,  and  so  much  more  thorough 
and  complete  is  our  knowledge  of  nature's  secret  labratory; 
and  80  much  more  is  it  ours,  at  our  disposal,  subject  to 


MIND    OR   BRAIN,  41 

human  mind.  It  is  self-evident  that  man  comprehends 
nature's  elements,  forces,  and  laws,  and  they  comprehend 
him  not;  hence,  he  actually  possesses  them,  and  they  pos- 
sess him  not. 

Here  we  have  an  undeniable  something,  in  both  art 
and  science,  which  is  superior  to  nature's  elements, 
forces,  and  laws.  It  understands  them,  and  they  under- 
stand him  not.  It  possesses  them,  and  they  possess  him 
not.  It  governs,  applies,  and  modifies  them  to  his  ends 
and  purposes.  What  is  it,  this  nameless  something? 
Scielice  with  all  its  excellency,  achievements,  and  redeem- 
ing qualities,  does  not  and  can  not  tell  us  what  it  is,  and 
yet  it  must  admit  that  it  is  entirely  diiferent  in  its 
raanisfestations  from  all  objects  which  yield  to  experi- 
mental science.  It  observes,  discerns,  discovers,  analyzes, 
combines,  and  constructs  laws ;  it  is  intelligent.  It 
applies  and  invents ;  it  lis  creative.  It  subjects,  reigns, 
rules,  governs ;  it  is  will  and  power.  Hence  here  is  a 
nameless  something,  which  is  creative  intelligence  and 
motive  will.  What  objection  can  any  exact  scientist  have 
if  we  call  it  mind  ?  I  know  of  no  more  appropriate 
name.  Therefore,  I  maintain,  art  and  science  are  the 
monuments  of  human  mind,  in  which  it  is  perpetually 
actualized. 


Mind  reaches  its  loftiest  and  most  lustrous  objectivity, 
when  turned  from  the  material  universe,  it  plunges  into 
its  own  mysterious  depth  and  contemplates  itself;  then, 
by  its  unmeasurable  buoyancy,  it  breaks  through  the 
narrow  compass  of  self,  soars  aloft  from  truth  to  truth 
to  the  hij^hest  truth,  through  the  dark  regions  of  the 
phenomenal  world,  of  cause  and  effect,  to  the  region  of 
eternal  light,  life,  love  and  wisdom,  where  all  which  is, 
was,  or  will  be,  meets  at  the  crystal  fountain-head,  dis- 
sonances vanish,  and  all  elements  and  forms  of  existence 
melt  into  one  grand  harmony.  There  and  then  mind  con- 
templates itself  in  the  mirror  of  universal  mind,  and 
reaches  the  sublimity  of  self-consciousness,  self-knowledge, 
a  priori.  This  self-contemplation  and  self-elevation, 
guided  by  spontaneous  inspiration,  is  religion  ;  guided 
by  discoursive  reason,  it  is  philosophy.  The  verities 
which  religion  spontaneously  produced,  form  the  sub- 
stance to  which  philosophy  gives  form  and  unity.  For- 
mal philosophy  produces  nothing  ;  it  groups  organically, 
proves  and  disproves,  systematizes,  shapes,    forms,  pro- 


42  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

duces  unity  out  of  chaos,  silences  dissonances,  and  swells 
the  accords  of  ideas  to  beautiful  harmonj'.  In  time 
philosophy  always  fbllows  after  religion.  After  a  certain 
wealth  of  verities  and  errors  had  existence  in  conscious- 
ness, reason  seized  upon  them  to  criticise,  sifl  and  con- 
truct  organic  systems.  In  the  ancient  treasures  of  man's 
religion,  Bible  or  Koran,  Vedas  of  Zendavesta,  tradi- 
tional or  documental,  Aryan  or  Semite,  or  rather  all  of 
them,  there  is  laid  down  avast  amount  of  finished  truth, 
in  the  most  childlike  form,  without  any  attempt  at  formal 
reasoning,  poured  forth  from  the  mind  by  spontaneous 
inspiration.  There  is  evidently  more  than  one  method  in 
the  mind  to  arrive  at  truth,  although  we  now  tie  our- 
selves down  to  the  inductive  mode  of  reasoning.  Other 
generations  follow  other  methods. 

It  is  so  well  established  now  that  the  religious  element 
is  in  the  human  mind,  history  can  not  be  ignored,  that 
Mr.  Darwin  antedates  it  even  down  to  his  faithful  dog, 
whose  obedience,  watchfulness,  attachment,  and  venera- 
tion for  his  master  he  calls  religion,  exactly  as  he  calls 
the  emotional  sounds  of  animals  language,  or,  as  I  would 
call  this  white  handkerchief  the  moon,  because  both  of 
them  reflect  rays  of  light.  All  this  is  very  sentimental 
of  Mr.  Darwin,  but  it  is  not  true.  It  is  certain  that  the 
dog  sees  his  master;  that  he  sees  in  him  anything  be- 
sides shape,  anj'thing  superior  in  quality  and  causality, 
is  not  merely  uncertain  or  improbable,  it  is  impossible, 
because  no  animal  possesses  the  power  of  abstraction,  to 
the  extent  of  separating  qualities  from  material,  effects 
from  causes,  external  from  internal  attributes.  Yet  it  is 
at  that  very  point  where  religion  begins,  where  self-con- 
templation discovers,  or  supposes  to  have  discovered,  out- 
side of  the  self,  being  superior  in  qualitj'-  and  causality. 
Whether  the  savage  then  calls  it  ghost,  spirit,  demon, 
or  God,  of  which  he  believes  one  or  a  legion  ;  in  kind  the 
idea  is  the  same  which  leads  the  cultivated  man  to  the 
knowledge  and  acknowledgement  of  one  God. 

Again,  that  the  dog  is  attached  to  his  master,  is  cer- 
tainly a  fact ;  that  he  feels  veneration,  is  none.  Venera- 
tion is  a  diagonal  effect  of  love  and  fear,  where  neither 
are  of  a  sensual  nature.  We  venerate  a  person  whose 
mental  or  moral  qualities  we  love,  and  whose  authority 
or  influence  we  fear,  all  of  which  are  J.bstract  qualities, 
and  the  dog  possesses  not  that  power  of  abstraction. 
Yet  veneration  is  the  next  primary  element  of  religion. 

Anyhow,  also  according  to  Darwin,  the  religious  ele- 
ment is  in  man  in  all  stages  and  j^hases  of  his  cultural 


MIND   OR   BRAIN.  45 

development.  Then  it  is  no  less  certain  that  spiritual 
self-consciousness  is  in  man  a  priori,  as  he  could  not  place 
outside  of  himself  that  which  is  not  in  him.  Seeing 
spirit  outside  of  himself,  he  must  first  have  discovered 
and  contemplated  it,  conscious  or  unconscious,  in  him- 
self, i.  e.,  the  spirit  must  first  know  its  own  existence 
must  be  self-conscious,  before  it  can  set  itself,  real  or  im- 
aginery,  outside  of  itself.  That  which  is  no  substance  at 
all  can  not  even  be  imagined.  Therefore  the  most 
ancient  ghosts  among  all  nations,  as  it  is  still  the  case 
among  Chinese  and  others,  are  departed  souls  of  human 
beings. 

In  religion,  therefore,  in  every  phase  of  development^ 
the  mind  first  recognizes  itself  as  a  substantial  being,  and 
produces  out  of  itself,  by  spontaneous  inspiration,  all  the 
truths  and  errors  of  the  various  religions.  Therefore  in 
all  religious  monuments  of  history,  mind  has  become 
permanently  objective.  It  is  in  them  that  the  mind  has- 
stepped  outside  of  itself,  and  stands  photographed  before 
the  observer,  so  that  no  more  evidence  of  its  substan- 
tiality should  be  necessary,  especially  if  we  cast  a  cursory 
glance  also  upon  phiiosophj'-. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  glorious  and  majestic  exemplary  of  a. 
being,  so  small,  so  weak,  so  circumscribed  in  space  and 
time  as  man  is,  if  he  spontaneously  breaks  through  all 
limits  of  space  and  time,  and  in  his  consciousness,  con- 
templation, and  devotion,  rises  to  the  infinite,  immense^ 
eternal,  and  universal,  above  and  be3'ond  uU  things- 
which  the  senses  perceive,  the  imagination  can  depict,  or 
the  universe  in  its  outward  manifestations  can  impress  ; 
when  man  by  the  mere  necessity  of  his  imture  worship^, 
the  God  he  contemplates.  The  materialist  should  at 
least  feel  induced  to  acknowledge,  there  is  notliing  like  it 
in  all  the  phenomena  of  this  universe. 

Greater  still,  more  sublime  and  more  divine  than  in  his- 
religion,  man  appears  in  his  unbroken  chain  of  philosophy 
from  Job  and  the  author  of  Koheloth  down  to  Spencer  and 
Hartman.  The  mind  having  soared  through  the  infinite 
universe,  returns  into  itself  and  seeks  clearness,  transpar- 
ency and  certainty  ;  carves  out  new  methods  of  thought^ 
tries,  sifts,  compares,  and  contemplates  everything  to  ar- 
rive at  certainty.  The  insignificant  little  man  who  sita 
in  the  corner  of  a  narrow  room,  quiet,  isolated,  and 
speechless,  hour  after  hour,  and  night  after  night,  before 
a  dim  flame,  penetrating  with  his  mind's  eye  heaven  and. 
heaven's  heaven,  the  mighty  deep  of  creation's  fathom- 
less sea,  gazing  upon  the  grand  scheme  of  the  universe^ 


44  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

watching  ana  ..stening  at  the  labratorj'  of  nature,  to  the 
mysteries  of  existence,  the  harmony,  beauty,  and  wis- 
dom of  the  boundless  all,  seeking  and  searching  the 
proper  formulas,  to  communicate  and  to  prove  all  the 
greatness  and  glory  which  his  mind  has  conceived  ; — yes 
fiuch  a  little  man  with  the  I'eflex  of  the  universe  in  him, 
one  should  think  must  have  a  mind,  something  incom- 
parable to  what  we  know  by  experimental  science;  for 
he  rises  to  the  dignity  of  an  infinite  being  in  comparison 
to  any  and  everything  in  this  universe  which  we  do 
know. 

This,  however,  all  philosophers  do.  They  cease  to  be 
mortal  beings,  when  the  mind  is  engulfed  in  the  con- 
templation of  the  universe.  They  are  no  longer  in  time 
when  they  contemplate  eternity,  no  longeron  earth  when 
they  penetrate  endless  space,  no  more  perishable  indi- 
viduals when  engulphed  in  eternal  Deity,  as  did  pi'ophet, 
theosophist  or  philosopher  at  all  times.  This  ought  to 
•convince  the  materialist  that  there  ai-e  mmds,  as  none 
has  ever  been  able  to  discover  the  slighest  difference  in 
the  organic  machine  of  the  greatest  thinker  and  the  most 
humble  peasant.  But  there  is  mind.  Hegel  has  given 
us  a  correct  idea  of  philosophy  which  is  the  most  won- 
derful chapter  in  the  records  of  human  deeds.  It  is  vul- 
garly supposed,  one  philosophical  school  upsets  what 
another  had  built  up,  and  all  turns  in  a  sort  of  vicious 
circle.  This  is  a  mistake.  With  every  onward  step 
philosophy  becomes  more  perfect  and  its  field  larger. 
Each  thinker  is  the  heir  of  all  his  predecessors.  What- 
ever we  know  and  understand  now,  is  the  mental  work 
•of  previous  thinkers,  to  which  we  add  our  OM'n,  however 
little  it  may  be.  We  correct  and  increase  continually. 
What  was  philosophy  in  Egypt  three  thousand  and  more 
years  ago  is  now  in  the  school-boj^'s  text  book  and  im- 
pregnates the  air  we  breathe.  And  what  is  now  profound 
philosophy  for  the  select  few,  will  be  common  property 
ef  all  in  a  thousand  or  less  years  hence  ;  for  intelligence 
now  travels  fast.  Hence  not  merely  minds,  the  mind  is 
philosophical. 

Another  vulgar  error  is,  that  philosophical  speculation 
is  all  subjective,  natural  science  alone  is  objective.  Yet, 
if  philosophy  had  not  leveled  the  path,  natural  science 
could  never  have  come  into  existence.  Philosophy, 
what  do  I  say?  Goethe  in  his  morphology  sees  ahead 
of  natural  science  to  its  present  height.  But  this  is 
Hot  the  point  to  be  disposed  of  here.  The  philosopher 
of  every  age  is  the  mere  focus,  in   which  the  dispersed 


MIND  OR   BRAIN.  4S 

rays  of  his  generation's  intelligence,  meet  in  unity  and 
harmony.  None  did  ever  stand  very  high  above  hig  age, 
and  none  ever  will.  This  is  an  acknowledged  princi- 
ple in  the  philosophy  of  history.  The  philosopher  com- 
prehends the  ideas  which  are  often  unconscious  in  the 
multitude  of  his  cotemporaries,  expresses  them  intelligi- 
bly, unites  them  consciously  to  a  system,  to  become  a 
stepping  stone  to  the  Genius  of  History,  pressing  onward 
and  forward,  irresistibly  and  unceasingly.  Therefore^ 
there  are  not  only  philosophical  minds,  there  is  mind. 

We  can  sum  up  thus  :  In  language  and  history  mind  is- 
actualized  in  countless  monuments,  each  of  which,  is  an 
actualization  of  ideas,  which  have  no  source  outside  of  hu- 
man mind.  In  them,  mind  is  objective  in  stereotyped 
deeds,  and  their  systematical  unity.  In  art  and  science, 
mind  is  actualized  as  inventive  intelligence  and  governing- 
will,  apart  of,  and  superior  to,  all  forces  known  to  the 
naturalist.  In  religion,  mind  recognizes,  and  places  itself 
objectively  outside  of  itself.  In  philosophy,  mind  con- 
templates itself  in  the  universal  mind,  and  inverts  alsa 
the  terms,  so  that  the  subjective  becomes  objective  and 
vice  versa. 

If  one  can  possibly  overlook  the  Logos  of  Language 
and  the  Genius  of  History,  and  comprehend  not  the 
monumental  objectivity  of  the  human  mind;  if  one  can. 
go  by  the  mighty  achievements  of  science  and  art,  the- 
control  and  dominion  which  man  assumes  over  the  earth,^ 
its  elements  and  forces,  the  power  of  mind  which  ha 
manifests  in  his  implements  and  machines,  from  the 
plough  to  the  locomotive,  steam  ship,  water  works,  opti- 
cal, physical,  and  mathematical  instruments ;  if  in  our 
days  of  thousand-fold  triumph  over  matter  and  its  for- 
ces, one  can  still  doubt  the  existence  of  mind,  let  him 
try  to  doubt  the  mind  which  has  become  objective  in  the 
religious  and  ethical  monuments  of  the  human  family, 
and  which  manifests  itself  perpetually  and  continually ',. 
and  if  he  by  some  unknown  means  can  do  even  this,  let 
him  try  to  account  for  the  existence  of  philosophy  with- 
out the  existence  of  mind  ;  or,  if  you  please,  let  him  show 
sunlight  without  a  sun,  or  an  ocean  withoutwater.  With- 
out mind,  there  nan  he  neither  language  nor  history, 
neither  art  nor  science,  neither  religion  nor  philosophy. 
These  things  are,  and  they  are  in  and  by  man  only  ; 
therefore  there  is  mind.  Our  problem  is  solved,  my  post- 
ulate is  established  "  There  is  mind."  Now  I  am  ready 
to  philosophize. 

As  we  shall  philosopliize  inductively,  let  me  say  hero- 


46  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

what    induction    signifies,    or  rather  let  us  hear    Victor 
Oousin  on  this  point.     He  saj'^s  : 

"  Call  to  mind  by  what  processes  and  upon  what  con- 
ditions we  obtain  a  law  in  the  physical  order.  When  a 
phenomenon  presents  itself  with  such  a  character  in  such 
•circunistaflce,  and  when,  the  circumstance  changing,  the 
<;haracter  of  the  phenomenon  changes  also,  it  follows  that 
this  character  is  not  a  law  of  the  phenomenon;  for  this 
phenomenon  can  still  appear,  even  when  this  character 
no  longer  exists.  But  if  this  phenomenon  appears  with 
the  same  character  in  a  succession  of  numerous  and  di- 
verse cases,  and  even  in  all  the  cases  that  fall  under  the 
observation,  we  hence  conclude  that  this  character  does 
not  pertain  to  such  or  such  a  circumstance,  but  to  the  ex- 
istence itself  of  the  phenomenon.  Such  is  the  process 
which  gives  to  the  physical  philosopher  and  to  the  natu- 
ralist what  is  called  a  law.  When  a  law  has  been  thus 
obtained  by  observation,  that  is,  by  the  comparison  of  a 
great  number  of  particular  cases,  the  mind  in  possession 
of  this  law  transfers  it  from  the  past  to  the  future,  and 
predicts  that,  in  all  the  analogous  circumstances  that  can 
take  place,  the  same  phenomenon  will  be  produced  with 
the  same  character.  This  prediction  is  induction:  in- 
duction has  for  a  necessary  condition  a  supposition,  that 
of  the  constancy  of  nature  ;  for  leave  out  this  supposi- 
tion, admit  that  nature  does  not  resemble  herself,  and 
the  night  does  not  guarantee  the  coming  day,  the  future 
eludes  foresight,  and  there  no  longer  exists  anything  but 
arbitrary  chance:  all  induction  is  impossible.  The  sup- 
position of  the  constancy  of  nature  is  the  necessary  con- 
dition of  induction  ;  but  this  condition  being  granted, 
induction,  resting  upon  sufficient  observation,  has  all  its 
force." 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  47 


LECTURE    VL 


HOMO-BEUTALISM  EEYIEWED. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — Some  men  of  learning  and 
genius  like  Messrs.  Vogt,  Haeckel,  Moleschott,  Huxley, 
Darwin,  Buechner  and  others,  have  imposed  a  hypothe- 
sis on  science,  which  reduces"  man,  on  the  scale  of  or- 
ganic beings.to  an  ape,  casually  and  mechanically  improv- 
ed, or  some  similar  animal,  no  longer  extant  as  a  living 
organism  or  dead  fossil,  i.  e.  an  imagined  animal,  one 
constructed  by  phantasy  on  the  strength  of  induction, 
legitimate,  or  illegitimate,  is  supposed  to  have  been  the 
ancestor  of  man,  and  several  kinds  of  apes.  The  mon- 
keys not  having  improved  themselves  from  casual  and 
mechanical  causes  unknown,  are  still  irredeemable  mon- 
keys. Some  of  them,  however,  having  casually  and 
mechanically  gone  through  a  series  of  improvements  and 
changes,  then  by  laws  of  inheritance  and  correlation 
have  become  human  beings,  and  with  them  the  history 
of  mankind  begins.  Permit  me  to  call  this  main  hypo- 
thesis Ifomo-Brutalism,  as  it  has  hitherto  been  given  no 
name  at  all. 

On  the  whole,  this  hypothesis  is  not  based  upon  ac- 
knowledged facts ;  it  rests  upon  an  attempt  of  explaining 
the  genesis  of  organic  beings  in  a  manner  more  agreeable 
to  our  understanding  at  the  present  altitude  of  natural 
science.  It  is  altogether  ingenious,  and  dependant  upon 
supposed  facts  which  may  or  may  not  turn  up.  Then  again 
themain  hypothesis  rests  upon  a  number  of  auxiliary  hy- 
potheses, such  as  the  combat  for  existence,  sexual  selection 
and  law  of  correlation,  each  of  which  is  without  the 
least  foundation  in  acknowledged  and  undisputed  fact; 
80  that  one  must  believe  in  a  long  biological  creed  of 
numerous  hypothetical  articles,  in  order  to  be  an  ap- 
proved Darwinist.  It  appears  to  me,  the  whole  theory 
of  Darwinian  transmutation  is  poetical,  though  beautiful 
still  very  uncertain.     1  discuss  this  point  elsewhere.     But 


48  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

in  regard  to  the  'geneeiB  of  man,  the  theory  is  an  entire 
failure,  although  repropped  by  Ilaeckel  in  a  voluminous 
attempt  of  logical  force.  Haeckel  is  the  logician  and 
Huxley  the  scientist  of  that  school. 

Poor  man  !  First  the  priest  came  with  his  indistinct 
notions  of  religion,  or  his  cunning  devices  to  establish 
and  enforce  his  authority,  and  now  science  with  a  false 
face  steps  in,  to  rob  man  of  his  dignity,  to  place  him  ma- 
ny degrees  below  the  dumb  idol  or  among  the  beasts  of 
the  field,  and  to  subject  all  to  iron,  relentless,  cold,  dead, 
and  unreasoning  Fate,  casualty,  dead  mechanism.  Free- 
dom and  reason  were  set  aside  by  the  priest  and  man 
was  made  a  helpless  tool  in  the  hands  of  powers  beyond 
his  control,  a  soulless  slave  of  his  priest,  who  was  himself 
the  tool  of  an  idol  or  demon  under  the  relentless  absolu- 
tism of  cold,  dead,  and  iron  Fate.  This  piece  of  heartless 
Btupidity  was  found  so  convenient  an  instrument  of  gov- 
ernment, to  oppress  the  masses  and  frighten  them  to 
blind  obedience  and  groanless  suffering,  that  rulers  in  com- 
mon with  priests,  where  they  were  not  themselves  the  rur 
lers,  seized  upon  the  terrifying  falsehood  and  imposed  it 
by  all  means  at  their  command,  until  the  human  family 
was  fairly  divided  into  slaves  and  taskmasters.  In  Egypt 
as  in  India,  in  Greece  as  in  ♦Rome,  with  all  the  boasted 
civilization,  two. thirds  of  all  men  were  slaves  or  Pariahs, 
the  living  chatties  of  cunning  and  violent  men;  because  the 
consciousness  of  man's  dignity  and  pre-eminence  was 
deadened,  and  blind  Fate  terrified  him. 

Through  the  channel  of  Rome  with  her  pernicious  pol- 
icy, that  piece  of  dogmatic  poison  was  inherited  by  mod- 
ern nations  in  the  form  of  original  sin  and  universal  deprav- 
ity, and  a  scheme  of  salvation  based  upon  this  error  ;  the 
same  enemy  to  freedom  and  intelligence,  the  same  night- 
mare to  self-consciousness  as  the  ancient  fatalism.  Man 
must  be  corrupt,  depraved,  wicked,  abject,  helpless,  for- 
lorn, so  that  the  priest  can  step  in  with  his  self-fiabricated 
god  or  gods,  and  his  dogmatic  dodges,  to  cheat  the  devil 
out  of  the  ignorant  and  deluded  soul,  kneeling  blind  and 
spell-bound  before  the  terror  stricken  idols  of  his  be- 
wildered imagination.  True,  the  priest  is  also  under  the 
curse  of  the  original  sin  and  universal  depravitj'^;  but  ho 
invents  dogmatic  subterfuges  to  prove  conclusively,  that 
he  is  not  he;  he  is  another  fellow  in  the  gown  and  another 
again  outside  thereof;  that  human  reason,  is  not  human 
reason,  it  is  the  devil's  tricks;  and  man's  moral  feelings 
are  not  moral  at  all,  unless  he  believes  the  priest's  well- 
arranged  hocus-pocus.  In  order  that  none  publish  the 
fraud,  thousands  of  innocent  fellows,  rational  thinkers, 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  49 

idealists,  enthusiasts,  and  philanthropists,  men,  women, 
and  childreen  were  slaughtered,  burnt  at  the  pyre,  driv- 
en to  misery  and  despair,  or  incarcerated  in  subterranean 
holes,  by  the  thousands,  yea,  by  the  tens  of  thousands; 
philosophy  and  science,  popular  enlightenment  and  com- 
mon education  were  put  under  the  ban,  and  the  sword  of 
worldly  power  executed  Satan's  terrible  decrees. 

After  men  had  been  for  centuries  so  thoroughly  robbed 
of  every  consciousness  of  human  dignity  and  pre-emin- 
ence, like  a  pack  of  frightened  sheep,  there  stepped  in  the 
emperor,  the  king,  the  prince,  tlie  ruler,  the  nobility,  all 
like  the  priest  by  the  grace  of  God,  and  contracted  a  co» 
partnership  with  the  successful  priesthood,  to  fleece  the 
sheep,  to  grow  fat  on  the  mutton,  to  trample  under  their 
feet  the  unpromising  lambkin;  to  degrade,  brutalize  and 
enslave  God's  own  image.  Helpless  man,  without  the  free 
use  of  his  reason,  without  reliance  in  his  conscience,  with- 
out consciousness  of  his  dignity  and  pre-eminence,  be- 
came a  slave  with  body  and  soul. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  violence,  wickedness,  and  cun- 
ningness,  human  nature  could  not  be  extinguished.  Ever 
since  Copernicus,  Keppler,  and  Galileo  gave  us  an  idea 
of  space,  the  priest's  miniature  gods  became  very  small  and 
insignificant,  merely  local  magistrates,  and  the  devil  with 
his  hell  and  ministering  demons  could  be  located  no  lon- 
ger. Then  came  Lord  Bacon,  and  the  Humanists,  Des- 
cartes, Spinoza,  Locke,  and  Leibnitz,  followed  by  a  host 
of  free  and  independent  thinkers,  defied  priest  and  king 
in  the  name  of  soverign  truth,  and  the  morning  dawned. 
Men  were  roused  to  a  recognition  of  their  own  dignity 
and  pre-eminence,  and  the  revolutions  came,  in  the  Neth- 
erlands against  bloody  Spain,  in  Germany  by  downtrod- 
den peasants,  in  England  under  Cromwell  and  the  Iron- 
sides, then  in  this  country,  in  France,  everywhere,  so  that 
we  still  live  in  the  midst  of  revolutions,  which  will  not 
end  before  man  has  gained  his  freedom  and  independence, 
the  last  crown,  throne,  and  scepter  shall  be  broken,  the 
last  monarch  and  the  last  priest  of  darkness  shall  have 
abjured  their  wicked  occupations,  man  shall  be  re-instated 
in  his  rights,  in  the  full  consciousness  of  his  dignity  and 
pre-eminence  as  a  man,  reason,  conscience,  and  freedom 
shall  reign  universally  and  forever.  Proud,  proud  I  say, 
down  with  that  abject  humility,  proud  man  must  be  made, 
in  order  to  become  virtuous  and  wise  in  due  self-respect. 
The  old  slavery,  contrition  and  creeping  obedience  must 
be  banished  out  of  him,  to  be  a  man  again. 

So  it  came  that  on  the  benign  fountain  of  philosophy 
4 


50  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

and  science,  man  began  to  recover.  In  the  midst  of  un- 
counted millions  of  Btupified  and  terrified  people,  who  can 
not  exist  without  a  potentate  and  a  priest — who  must  be 
fleeced,  ruled,  dandled,  or  whipped — there  arose  a  power- 
ful intelligence,  a  self-conscious  and  enlightened  element. 
It  rose  in  broad  daylight  to  proclaim  man's  emancipation 
from  all  authorities,  his  right  to  be  free,  and  his  duty  to 
guard  human  dignity  against  all  offenses.  Man  began  to 
recognize  himself  and  his  fellow-man  again  in  their  true 
dignity  and  pre-eminence,  and  a  better  future  dawned. 
But  alas!  there  comes  false-faced  science  with  its  ventur- 
some  hypotheses,  the  modern  diseases  of  materialism  and 
Darwinism,  committing  the  same  errors  over  again,  places 
blind  and  irrational  Fate  on  the  throne  of  the  God  of  wis- 
dom and  love,  pushes  man  back  among  the  irrational 
brutes,  deprives  him  of  his  dignity  and  pre  eminence, 
degrades,  terrifies,  and  bewilders  him.  It  is  the  same 
curse  as  ever,  the  same  defiance  of  reason  and  philanthro- 
py as  heretofore,  the  same  retrogressive  movement  to 
bring  misery  on  the  human  family. 

Look  especially  upon  the  Darwinian  hypothesis.  Man 
is  an  improved  beast.  His  religion,  ethics,  and  aesthetics, 
his  domestic  and  social  virtues,  his  intelligence  and  wis- 
dom, it  is  all  brutal,  only  that  some  men  have  a  little  more 
of  it  than  some  brutes.  Then  the  speculative  scientist  steps 
in  and  proves  to  you  that  it  must  be  so;  for  there  are  the 
ant,  the  spider,  the  bee,  and  the  beaver,  which  do  things 
wonderfully  wise;  and  here  are  the  dog,  the  horse,  the  ele- 
phant, and  the  wise  sheep,  which  are  both  moral  and  relig- 
ious. The^bumble-beephilosophizes,  and  the  rooster  studies 
cesthetics.  All  your  birds,  chickens,  geese,  and  turkeys 
practice  {esthetics,  when  they  fall  in  love  or  pine  away  in 
unheeded  affections,  as  you  may  hear  in  the  beautiful 
cadences  of  the  geese  in  my  neighborhood.  There  are  in 
Africa  some  monkeys  whose  noses  are  like  those  of  some 
men,  others  who  have  the  same  teeth  as  made  by  our 
dentists,  and  others  again  walk  far  better  erect  than  any 
drilled  bear  or  dog.  Some  of  them  have  beards — mark 
well,  BEARDS — not  made  out  of  other  people's  hair  or  hemp, 
but  natural  beards,  long  and  of  various  colors;  not  like 
the  beard  of  the  he-goat,  but  like  man's,  grown  by  the 
sesthetical  exertions  of  monkeys  in  love  with  hard-hearted 
monkey  dames.  Therefore,  you  see,  the  conclusion  is 
irresistible;  therefore  all  those  monkeys  and  man  must 
be  the  descendants  of  one  and  the  same  beast,  of  whose 
existence  we  have  no  knowledge;  and  that  beast  was  the 
offspring  of  another  and  lower  beast,  and  that  again  of 


HOMO-BRUTALISM   REVIEWED.  51 

another,  and  bo  on  and  on,  down  to  the  original  dirt  upon 
which  the  sun  shone  for  the  first  time.  There  in  that 
original  dirt  you  may  discover  the  history  of  all  living 
creatures,  all  the  morals,  intelligence,  and  languages  of 
man.  But  the  spectacles  must  be  correct  and  made  in  the 
Darwinian  factory.     Here  is  your  Darwinism  in  brief. 

In  a  moral  point  of  view  the  Darwinian  hypothesis  on 
the  descent  of  man  is  the   most    pernicious  that    could 
be  possibly  advanced,  not  only  because  it  robs  man  of  his 
dignity  and  the  consciousness  of  pre-eminence,  which  is 
the  coffln  to  all  virtue,  but  chiefly  because  it  presents  all 
nature  as  a  battle-ground,  a  perpetual  warfare  of  each 
against  all  in  the  combat  for  existence,  and  represents  the 
victors  as  those  worthy  of  existence,   and  the  vanquished 
ripe  for  destruction.     So  might  is  right,  the  cardinal  sin 
is  to  be  the  weekest  party.     If  this  is  nature's  law,  and 
man  is  an  improved  beast,  then  war  to  the  knife,  perpetual 
war  of  each  against  all,  is  also  human  law,  and  peace  in 
any  shape  is  illegitimate  and  unnatural.     Therefore  in  all 
cases  of  expulsion,  assassination  or  slaughter,  among  indi- 
viduals or  nations,  the  vanquished  party  was  doomed  in 
advance,  by  a  law  of  nature;  and  the  victors  having  en- 
forced the  laws  of  nature  are  neither  culpable  nor  respon- 
sible for  their  deeds.     The  British  Parlianient  is  not  ready, 
I  opine,  to  endorse  this  doctrine.     The  case  is  aggravated 
by  the  auxiliary  hypothesis  of  sexual  selection.     If  the 
most  careful  sexual  selection  makes  the  most  perfect  hu- 
man beings,  then  the  potentates  and  nobility  of  the  Old 
World  have  a  twofold  right  to  their  claim  of  superiority 
and  their  title  to  govern  others,  and  we  poor  and  deluded 
democrats,    who  claim  equality  of  rights  for  all,  are  in 
error;  for  the  aristocrats  of  the  Old  World  are  the  victors, 
or  their  descendants,  by  the  most  careful  sexual  selection, 
and  we  plebeians  are  sons  of  our  mothers  and  fathers,  who 
were  ordinary  mortals.     So  with  ancient  materialism  and 
fatalism,   we  are  led  back  to  the  ancient  factions  and  clans 
of  society  with  all  the  misery  of  that  system;   inalienable 
and  inborn  rights,   equality,  liberty   and  the    pursuit  of 
happiness,  are  mere  terms  of  a  compact,  and  none  a  truth 
per  se;  the  most  improved  felons  are  the  lords  of  land  and 
sea;  and  the  other  trash  which  has  to  be  extinguished  any 
how,  is  merely  tolerated  for  the  lords'  special  accommoda- 
tion.    It  appears  to  me  that  Darwinism  is  tolerated  in  Eu- 
rope, because  it  props  the  aristocracy.  This  point  deserves 
much  more  consideration  than  I  can  give  it  in  this  lecture, 
as  I  do  not  mean  to  review  the  hypothesis  from  a  moral 
standpoint;  I  intend  to  place  fact  against  fact,  and  will 
begin  at  once. 


52  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

In  the  first  place  the  Darwinists  ought  to  prove  the  unity 
of  the  human  race,  to  render  it  plausible  that  the  monkey 
changed  into  an  Ethiopian,  the  Ethiopian  into  a  Mongolian, 
and  he  into  a  Caucasian.  The  unity  or  diversity  of  the- 
human  family  is  no  settled  question  in  science.  In  Eng- 
land, it  is  true,  the  Doctors  Prichard  and  Latham  main- 
tained the  unity  of  the  human  family,  hence  the  descent 
of  all  human  varieties  from  one  pair  of  human  beings. 
But  in  America  the  contrary  opinion  has  been  advanced 
and  well  defended  by  Dr.  Morton,  Prof  Agassiz,  the  doc- 
tors W.  Usher  and  J.  C.  Nott,  Prof  S.  H.  Patterson  and 
other  prominent  scientists.  They  maintain  the  diversity 
of  the  human  family,  consequently  the  descent  of  the  va- 
rious races  from  different  first  parents.  In  Germany  also 
much  has  been  written  and  nothing  established  about  this 
point;  so  that  F.  L.  Lange  steps  conveniently  across  this 
stumbling  block  with  the  authoritative  remark  that  it  is 
immaterial.  So  it  is  in  ethics  and  politics,  but  not  in 
the  theory  of  evolution;  for  here  are  plain  facts  in  direct 
conflict  with  the  Darwinian  hypothesis. 

The  English  doctors,  if  we  admit  all  their  evidence  and 
arguments,  prove  no  more  than  the  probability  that  outer 
influences  may  have  changed  the  types  of  men  to  what 
they  now  are.  Thefact  itself  is  not  established.  But  there 
is  the  anatomical  difference  in  the  structure  of  the  head 
and  the  texture  of  the  hair,  then  the  difference  of  color 
pointing  to  chemical  differences,  and  above  all  the  ethno- 
logical differences  in  the  sum  of  inventions,  language,  and 
civilization,  so  marked  and  decisive  that  the  unity  of  the 
human  race  can  be  maintained  by  conclusive,  scientific- 
evidence  only,  which  neither  Mr.  Darwin  nor  his  followers 
advance. 

Eeference  to  the  Bible  will  not  save  the  hypothesis. 
True,  the  author  of  G-enesis  stood  so  much  nearer  to  the 
cradle  of  humanity  than  we  do,  and  ought  to  have  known 
more  than  we  of  man's  origin;  still,  we  have  no  proof  in. 
hand  of  his  infallibility  on  this  point,  unless  we  start  out 
with  .the  belief  i  n  revelation.  In  this  case,  however, 
the  Darwinian  hypothesis  falls  of  itself,  as  regards  the 
descent  of  man. 

In  my  opinion,  the  Bible  does  not  teach  the  unity  of 
the  human  race,  as  I  have  already  advanced  in  1854  in 
my  History,  (Vol.  1.  p.  42),  there  are  not  only  the  sons 
of  Elohim  and  the  daughters  of  Adam  whose  origin  is- 
doubtful ;  but  also  the  Nephilim,  Bephaim,  Enakim,  Horimf 
Samsumim,  Aimim  and  several  other  tribes  mentioned  in 
the  Bible,  who  were  no  descendants  of  either  Adam  or 
Koah. 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  53 

The  hypothesis  that  the  three  races,  Caucasian,  Mongo- 
lian and  Ethiopian,  are  descendants  of  the  three  sons  of 
Noah,  Shem,  Ham  and  Japheth,  is  utterly  false,  as  the 
genealogical  tables  prove.  In  the  case  of  Ham,  the  sup- 
posed ancestor  of  the  Ethiopians,  we  know  that  the 
Egyptians,  Phoenicians  and  Canaanites  were  his  descen- 
dants, and  they  were  all  white,  so  white  indeed,  that 
King  Solomon  married  a  daughter  of  Pharoah,King  Ahab 
espoused  the  fair  princess  of  Tyre,  and  the  Hebrews  had 
Canaan itish  wives  as  late  as  the  days  of  Ezra,  although 
the  daughters  of  Israel  were  always  fair  and  beautiful,  as 
the  great  Rabbi  JohananBen  Saccai  testifies.  There  is 
no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  author  of  Genesis  knows  of 
the  Caucasian  race  only.  His  Adam  and  Noah  are  the 
fathers  of  the  Caucasians;  his  Paradise  and  Deluge  must 
be  located  in  Southern  Asia.  True,  there  are  Ethiopian 
countenances  on  the  Egyptian  Pyramids,  but  they  must 
not  necessarily  have  been  there  in  the  time  of  Moses.  The 
word  Kushi,  translated  "Ethiopian,"  refers  to  Caucasian 
Arabs,  as  is  evident  from  Numbers  xii,  1,  and  II  Chron- 
icles xiv,  7  to  14.  Yery  late  in  Jewish  History  (Jere- 
miah xiii,  23)  the  name  Kushi  is  given  to  a  man  of  anoth- 
er color. 

The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  not  established  in  science 
or  the  Bible.  There  is  no  evidence  on  record  that  a  per- 
manent and  lasting  transition  from  race  to  race  can  be 
effected.  The  last  fossil  man  found,  is  a  Paleolithic  skel- 
eton, discovered  in  the  caverns  of  Metone,  in  Italy,  and 
is  about  the  same  as  a  modern  Caucasian,  six  feet  high,  no 
trace  of  an  ape,  and  with  a  skull  somewhat  inferior  to 
that  of  Mr.  Darwin  s.  But  there  are  now  a  number  of 
inferior  skulls  no  human  frames;  so  at  that  time  superior 
men  may  have  lived  simultaneously  with  that  man  of 
Mentone. 

It  must  be  remarked  here,  that  all  the  human  fossils 
found  hitherto,  those  of  Cro-Magnon  and  Hohenfels  in- 
cluded, together  with  all  the  discoveries  of  Abbe  Burgeois 
and  Tardy,  and  the  learned  expositions  of  Lartet,  Mortil- 
let  and  Warsae,  do  not  prove  that  those  human  beings  did 
live  in  Europe  prior  to  the  early  period  of  the  Assyrian 
emptre;  or  that  the  Glacial  time  together  with  the  trog- 
lodite  men  and  beasts  was  closed  in  Europe  or  America 
north  of  the  Ohio  and  Potomac  rivers,  while  there  was  a 
high  civilization  in  Asia  and  Egj'pt;  or  that  any  but  the 
Caucasian  ever  existed  in  Europe  ;  or  that  the  human 
form  and  construction,  head  included,  underwent  any 
considerable  change.     We  have  now  Pathegonians  and 


54  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

Esquimaux,  Laplanders  and  the  mountaineers  of  Cauca- 
sia, and  in  all  localities  between  these  extremes,  we  find 
men  of  the  most  diverse  construction  of  skulls.  The  same 
precisely  is  the  case  with  the  implements.  Stone,  bronze 
and  iron  implements  may  have  been  in  use  simultaneously 
in  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  I  have  no  doubt  they 
were  ;  as  is  the  case  now  in  many  particulars.  Professor 
Fraas  himself  proves  by  traditions  from  antiquity  and  the 
European  Middle  Ages,  the  existing  knowledge  from  the 
troglodite  period,  the  stone  age,  and  the  glacial  time.  So 
there  is  no  fact  in  existence  to  prove  either  the  transition 
from  race  to  race,  or  any  improvement  or  change  of  the 
human  frame. 

If  the  races  of  the  human  family  are  permanent,  and 
the  proof  thereof  is  as  old  as  history,  then  the  Darwinists 
are  entitled  to  only  one  hypothesis  in  this  relation,  viz  : 
one  class  of  monkeys  transformed  themselves  into  one  or 
more  Caucrsian  Adams  and  Eves,  others  into  Mongolians, 
ann  again  others  into  Ethiopians.  As  we  are  best  ac- 
quainted with  the  Caucasian  race  we  will  investigate 
chiefly,  without  neglecting  the  other  races  entirely,  wheth- 
er or  not  sufficient  points  of  similiarity  between  man  and 
monkey  offer,  to  establish  the  fact  of  a  common  ancestry;. 
or  if  sufficient  points  of  dissimiliarity  exist  to  deny  the  al- 
legation. I  will  say  in  advance,  however,  that  to  me, 
man,  of  course  woman  included,  is  too  dear  a  creature,  to 
be  identified  with  or  compared  to  any  sublunar  being, 
Man  is  the  most  beautiful  and  most  perfect  work  of  nature. 
Sun,  moon,  stars,  rainbow  and  flowers  compare  not  in 
beauty  to  the  human  countenance.  There  is  nothing  as 
lovely,  tender  and  impressive  as  man's  face,  nothing  more 
wonderful  than  his  brilliant  eye,  more  heavenlike  than  his 
voice  in  song  and  speech,  more  sublime  than  a  firm  moral 
character,  or  more  divine  than  a  man  contemplating  God 
and  eternity.  All  similes  fail,  all  comparisons  are  false; 
man  stands  alone  and  incomparable  on  this  earth.  But 
we  deal  in  a  scientific  question,  will  and  must  handle  it  in 
the  scientific  method. 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  55 


LECTURE  VI. 


HOMO-BEUTALISM— REVIEWED  ANATOMICALLY 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Permit  me  to  state  that  I 
admire  Mr.  Darwin  as  an  eminent  biologist,  whose  hy- 
potheses deserve  a  careful  consideration.  He  displays 
more  originality  of  thought  in  his  particular  branch  thaa 
many  prominent  men,  and  his  research  is  vast  and  won- 
derful. Men  like  Darwin  are  veiy  rare,  few  and  far  apart. 
He  deserves  our  admiration.  His  main  hypothesis,  how- 
ever, to  account  for  the  oi^igin  of  species,  together  with  the 
auxiliary  hypotheses,  appears  to  me  not  established  in 
fact,  and  insufficient  to  account  for  the  genesis  of  organ- 
isms. I  furthermore  think,  that  the  German  disciples  and 
admirers  morally  pressed  him  to  write  his  Descent  of  Man, 
which  is  the  most  unscientific  book  he  did  write. 

Homo-Brutalism  in  its  modern  garb,  is  much  older  than 
Darwin's  book.  It  was  first  advanced  by  the  zoologist 
Carl  Vogt  in  a  book  which  appeared  in  1863.  Mr.  Haeckel, 
the  German  adviser  of  Mr.  Huxley,  was  the  man  who  gave 
the  matter  a  strictly  scientific  and  logical  form,  basing 
upon  the  Darwinian  theory  of  evolution,  or  rather  mech- 
anical transmutation.  This  pressed  Mr.  Darwin,  to  come 
forward  with  the  last  result  of  the  hypothesis,  attempting 
to  establish  the  descendency  of  man  from  some  unknown 
brutal  ancestor,  the  progenitor  of  the  anthropomorphous 
apes,  especially  the  Gorilla,  Ourang,  Chimpanzee  and  Gib- 
bon, which  bear,  structural  resemblances  to  man;  because, 
as  Mr.  Darwin  says,  "As  man  agrees  with  them  not  only 
in  all  those  characters  which  he  possesses  in  common  with 
the  Catarhine  group,  but  in  other  peculiar  characters, 
such  as  the  absence  of  a  tail  and  callosities,  and  in  gen- 
eral appearance,  we  may  infer  that  some  ancient  member 
of  the  anthropomorphous  sub-group  gave  birth  to  man" 
(Descent  of  Man,  Vol.  1  p.  189.) 

Man's  resemblance  to  the  Catarhine  monkeys  is  based 
chiefly  upon  his  nostrils,  jaws,  and  teeth,  and  this  is  about 
all  he  has  in  common  with  them,  so  that  we  might  justly 
infer  that  man  in  smelling  and  grinding  the  food  resem-' 


66  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

bles  those  monkeys.  All  other  inferences  are  illegitimate. 
Man's  resemblance  to  the  anthropomorphous  apes  consists 
of  the  general  appearance,  which  as  a  general  thing 
amounts  to  very  little,  and  the  absence  of  tail  and  callos- 
ities. If,  however,  the  absence  of  any  member  or  phenom- 
enon is  a  good  criterion  of  common  genealogy,  then  man 
may  just  as  well  be  considered  of  common  descent  with 
the  lion  or  cat,  for  both  of  them  wear  mustaches,  have 
neither  tusks  nor  trunks,  and  there  are  white  cats  with 
blue  eyes;  only  that  our  white  beauties  with  blue  eyes  are 
not  deaf,  and  cats  of  that  kind  usually  are.  But  this 
wonderful  change  may  have  been  brought  about  by  sex- 
ual selection,  in  the  course  of  a  few  millions  of  years,  of 
course,  since  the  Tertitary  Age,  as  Mr.  Haeckel  wants  it. 
Anyhow  it  is  for  the  first  time  in  science,  that  nonenity 
is  considered  an  adequate  criterion,  to  establish  a  fact. 

Some  of  the  ancients  were  of  the  opinion,  that  those  an- 
thropomorphous apes  were  accursed  men,  fallen  men,  men 
punished  for  their  misdeeds,  like  King  Nebuchadnezzar; 
and  there  is  as  much  sense  in  this  as  in  the  other  hypoth- 
esis.    If  those  apes  bear  a  stronger  resemblance  to  man 
than  to  the  lower  monkeys,   as  Mr.  Huxley  maintains,  I 
know  not  on   what  ground,     and  our  sober  experience 
teaches,  that  man  may  be   brutalized,  while  brutes    can 
not  be  humanized  ;  well,  then,   it  is  much  more  scientific 
to    maintain  that  those  apes  are  deterioated  Ethiopians, 
than  to  advance  that  the  Australian  aborigene  is   an  im- 
proved ape.     It  could  be  quite  well  supposed,  that  in  pre- 
historic ages,  at  a  time  probably  when  Australia  was  con- 
nected with  Asia,  there  was  no  communication  between 
the  tribes  who  lived  far  apart  on  account  of  the  combat 
for  existence  ;  individuals  expelled  from  their  tribes  on  ac- 
count of  misdeeds,  or  losing  their  way  in  unbroken  for- 
ests, went  like  Cain  to  the  land  of  Nod,  straggled  far  away, 
became  low  savages  at  this  or  that  point,  and  finally  ape- 
like beings  at    other    points.     Huxley    admits  that  the 
Australians  are     of   Egyptain     origin  ;     hence    he  must 
admit  deterioration  in  fact.     If  the  proud  race  of  Mitzraim 
could      become  savage  and  crippled  Australians,  why  not 
also  baboons?     If  on  the    one  hand  it  is  admitted  that  the 
monkey's  hands  could  change  gradually  to  human  feet, 
and  the  hairy,  rough  and  dark  skin  of  the  ape  could  be 
tanned   and  bleached   to  the  soft  and  white  skin  of  the 
Caucasian,  why  should  not  human  feet,  by  climbing  be 
changed  into  hands,  and  the  naked  body  exposed  to  inim- 
ical   elements,    not    become    rough,    dark,    and    hairy? 
Those  who  did  not  succeed  in  that  adaption,  we  would 


HOMO-BRTJTALISM   REVIEWED.  57 

* 

«ay  with  Mr.  Darwin,  died  out,  and  the  changed  individ- 
uals survived.  All  the  other  hypotheses  of  Mr.  Darwin 
are  applicable  in  this  case  much  better  than  their  opposite. 
The  hypothesis  of  the  ancients,  I  think  is  even  prefer- 
able to  Mr.  Darwin's,  because  it  rests  upon  experienced 
facts,  and  Mr.  Darwin's  does  not.  It  has  its  proof  even 
in  embryology.  The  human  embryo  at  a  certain  status 
is  hair}',  but  this  condition  is  overcome  by  the  progress- 
ive development  of  the  human  being.  If  a  state  is  over- 
come by  the  progressive  development  in  the  embryo,  it 
might  re-appear  by  the  retrogression  of  the  being  to  that 
lower  condition.  If  the  Darwinian  would  ask,  why  did 
man  deteriorate  to  an  anthropomorphous  and  not  to  an- 
other animal,  I  could  reply  for  the  ancients;  because  like 
Yogt,  Haeckel,  Huxley,  Darwin  and  the  others,  those 
straggling  Ethiopians  met  among  other  animals  also  the 
Catarhine  monkeys  and  mistook  them  for  something  akin 
to  human  beings,  anyhow  more  sociable,  less  ferocious 
and  more  docile  than  other  animals  ;  therefore  they  as- 
sociated with  them,  then  aped  them,  and  at  last  became 
like  them,  as  analogous  facts  abundantly  prove.  If  the 
Darwinian  ask  furthermore  what  is  gained  by  the  hypoth- 
esis of  the  ancients,  I  could  answer  for  them  a  good  deal; 
it  saves  the  dignit}''  of  man,  and  might  encourage  the 
mission  societies  to  send  their  pious  and  zealous  mission- 
aries to  the  poor,  neglected  and  lost  apes,  and  quench  the 
philanthropic  thirst  of  good  natured  matrons.  Is  this 
nething?  Ask  our  enthusiastic  friends,  whether  this  is 
not  a  great  deal.  Then  I  would  turn  upon  the  Darwin- 
ian and  ask  him,  what  is  gained  by  your  hypothesis? 
Does  it  explain  one  trait  of  human  character  or  one  fea- 
ture of  his  organism?  Is  it  of  any  earthly  use  to  the 
phj^sician,  scientist,  statesman,  politician,  law  maker,  ruler 
historian  or  jjhilosopher?  Evidently  not,  none  can  turn 
it  to  any  practical  purpose.  It  only  degrades  man,  and 
gives  him  nothing  in  return. 

So,  I  believe,  most  all  Darwinian  hypotheses  could  be 
led  ad  absurdum,  especially  those  concerning  the  Descent 
of  Man,  which  present  a  momentary  aberration  of  the 
human  mind,  a  sporadic  and  epidemic  disease  of  an  over- 
loaded age,  as  was  at  its  respective  time  alchemy,  astrol- 
ogy, phrenology,  and  exploded  exorcism.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  now,  to  argue  against  the  Darwinian  hypothesis 
on  the  descent  of  man,  as  little  is  left  of  it  which  Euro- 
pean thinkers  have  not  refuted.  From  our  standpoint, 
the  diversity  of  the  human  family,  comparing  the  Cau- 
casian man  to  the  anthropomorphous   ape,    the   dissem- 


58  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

blance  is  so  strikinp^,  that  a  common  genealogy  is  impos- 
sible.    Let  us  cast  a  glance  upon  anatomy  first. 

None  of  the  defenders  of  homo-brutalism  will  admit  to 
be  so  ignorant  of  anatomy,  that  he  could  not  distinguish 
prima  vista,  between  any  hnman  bone  or  muscle  and  the 
corresponding  bone  or  muscle  of  an  ape.  The  same  pre- 
cisely is  the  case  with  the  texture  of  skin  and  hair,  and 
their  color.  Evidently  we  have  before  us  in  each  case 
another  combination  of  cells  different  in  structure,  con- 
stituents and  proportions.  We  deal  here  in  chemical,  con- 
sequently substantial  differences,  realized  in  difierent 
morphotic  structures,  which  no  sensible  man  can  begin  ta 
account  for,  except  by  dissimilar  differentiations  of  the 
vital  force.  There  is  no  other  cause  known.  Then  the 
difference  between  man  and  ape  in  morphology  is  as  mark- 
ed and  decisive  as  that  of  a  deer  and  an  oak. 

But  the  anatomic  dissemblances  are  also  marked  and 
decisive.  .  Man  has  two  hands  and  two  feet,  to  begin  with 
tiie  locomotive  organs,  and  the  monkey  has  four  hands, 
used  as  feet,  to  crawl,  leap,  or  climb.  Mr.  Darwin  tells 
us,  during  the  millions  of  years,  two  of  the  monkey's 
hands,  by  application  and  inheritance,  were  changed  to 
human  feet.  This  might  just  as  well  have  been  accom- 
plished, as  the  dark  rough  and  hairy  skin  of  the  ape  could 
be  transformed  into  the  soft,  smooth,  and  white  skin  of 
the  Caucasian  ;  or  as  well  as  the  dull  eye  of  the  baboon 
could  be  improved  to  the  large,  lustrous  and  expressive 
eye  of  man  ;  or  the  monkey  skull  could  be  proportioned 
and  rounded  to  a  human  head.  Yes,  I  would  reply,  one 
is  as  possible  as  the  other.  The  question  in  this  case, 
from  the  Darwinian  standpoint,  is,  why  should  the  man 
ape  change  two  of  his  hands  to  mere  feet?  Sexual  select- 
ion had  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  for  no  monkey  dame  could 
have  possibly  thought  of  a  bi-handed  or  bi-footed  lover, 
whose  prehensile  and  defensive  powers  were  so  much 
decreased.  With  four  hands  one  can  sieze  better  than 
with  two.  In  self-defense  or  labor,  four  hands  will  do 
better  than  two ;  hence  natural  selection  and  the  com- 
bat for  existence  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  wanton  change. 
The  ape  with  four  hands  and  prehensive  tail  runs,  leaps, 
climbs  and  defends  himself  better  than  a  two  handed  and 
unarmed  man  can.  Hence  thei*e  was  no  gain,  there  waa 
a  great  loss  in  the  change  to  the  animal ;  why  then  should 
it  have  attempted  such  a  deplorable  change?  Here  Mr- 
Darwin's  teleology  fails,  if  he  resorts  not  to  the  very  un- 
likely hypothesis,  that  the  man-ape  felt  the  necessity  of 
assuming   an  erect  posture,    which  is  the  most  marked 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  5^ 

dissemblance  of  man  and  beast.    Let  us  investigate  this- 
point. 

The  erect  posture  and  bipedal  walk  of  man  is  one  of 
his  characteristics  falling  in  the  eye  of  the  most  cursory 
observer.  The  whole  character  of  a  man  finds  express- 
ion in  his  posture  and  gait.  His  feelings,  emotions, 
thoughts,  intentions  and  resolutions  are  demonstrated  in 
the  positions  of  his  body  and  the  peculiarity  of  his  steps;, 
80  that  both  are  peculiarly  human.  This  posture  and  gait 
are  made  possible  by  the  anatomical  structure  of  his  bones 
and  muscles.  Without  this  pelvis,  this  spinal  column, 
this  clavicle,  scapula,  and  sternum,  with  their  peculiar 
muscles  and  nerves,  upright  posture  is  unnatural  and 
bipedal  walk  impossible  as  a  rule.  The  dog,  bear,  or  ape 
may  he  drilled  to  assume  it,  but  it  is  a  perpetual  strain 
and  violence  on  them.  Man  only  is  constructed  to  look 
heavenward,  onward,  and  forwai'd.  Mr.  Vogt  with  all  his- 
partiality  for  the  ape,  nevertheless  admits,  that  the  struct- 
ure of  man  differs  entirely  from  the  ape,  and  man  only  is 
built  to  walk  erect.  This  is  also  the  last  word  of  Haeckel 
and  Huxley  on  this  point,  so  that  the  latter  admits,  that 
links  in  the  chain  of  creatures  between  man  and  ape  are 
certainly  missing.  All  rational  zoologists  admit  that  the 
structure  of  the  rump,  and  not  the  locomotive  organs  de- 
cides the  character  of  an  organic  being.  In  the  rump, 
however,  there  exists  not  as  much  resemblance' between 
man  and  ape  as  between  the  lion  and  oppossum,  or  the- 
deer  and  the  rat.  If  Mr.  Darwin  tells  me,  that  now  the 
structure  of  man  makes  the  upright  posture  necessary  and 
natural,  but  millions  of  years  ago  it  was  otherwise,  I 
must  ask  why?  how  can  you  possibly  know  it?  If  it  is, 
because  the  dog,  bear,  or  ape  can  be  taught  to  assume  ex- 
ceptionally an  erect  posture,  you  can  not  change  his. 
bones  and  muscles  to  give  it  permanency;  how  do  you 
know  it  could  at  all  be  done  at  any  time?  and  if  you  have 
no  fact  to  show  the  bare  possibility,  are  no  prophet,  and 
no  son  of  a  prophet,  what  right  have  you  to  advance  a 
hypothesis  in  science,  which  has  no  foundation  in  fact 
and  explains  no  phenomenon? 

Moreover,  I  would  ask  Mr.  Darwin,  why  should  the 
man-ape  ever  have  attempted  to  walk  erect,  stretch, 
strain,  disjoint,  and  dislocate  bones  and  muscles,  which 
must  have  been  quite  painful  to  that  creature,  merely  to- 
assume  a  position  so  unnatural  to  him?  He  could  not 
possibly  anticipate  that  by  this  exertion  his  whole  frame 
will  undergo  a  revolution  to  make  of  him  a  man  and  a 
Caucasian,  nor  could  he  care  for  it ;  yet  the  fact  is  univer- 


60  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

sally  admitted,  that  the  human  head,  brain,  countenance, 
the  entire  man  is  as  he  is,  on  account  of  his  erect  posture. 

In  the  combat  of  existence  the  man-ape  coUld  only  in- 
jure himself  by  the  tormenting  experiment,  which  must 
have  made  him  so  much  more  helpless  and  defenseless,  as 
it  does  to-day  the  dog,  bear,  or  ape,  in  that  unnatural 
position.  Sexual  selection  had  certainly  nothing  to  do 
with  it;  for  the  ape-dame  could  not  possibly  be  more  par- 
tial to  a  helpless  admirer  who  made  a  caricature  of  him- 
self than  to  one  of  her  own  kind  and  taste.  Mr.  Darwin 
has  not  advanced  one  holding  point,  and  I  can  guess  none, 
to  prove  the  mere  probability  that  man  ever  was  a  four- 
handed,  creeping  ape,  or  that  th^e  ape  could  chemically 
And  morphotically  change  his  entire  frame  for  that  of  man; 
hence  as  far  as  anatomy  is  coDcerned,  the  hypothesis  is 
groundless  and  childish. 

Still,  if  there  be  one  within  hearing  distance  to  doubt 
this  point,  let  him  be  reminded  that  man  has  a  larynx  in 
his  throat  by  which  he  is  enabled  to  utter  articulate 
-speech  and  human  song;  yes,  a  larynx,  with  its  five  car- 
tilaginous pieces,  which  no  animal  has.  Therefore  man 
alone  speaks  articulate  language  and  sings  human  songs 
which  no  animal  can  do.  The  animal  having  no  ideas  to 
•express,  has  no  use  for  a  larynx,  therefore  it  has  none. 
Man  is  a  man  because  he  can  speak  articulate  language 
and  siilg  human  song.  He  must  have  words  to  remember, 
abstract,  reason,  judge,  establish  principles,  laws,  science, 
philosophy,  religion,  ethics,  aesthetics,  all  that  is  peculi- 
-arly  human.  Without  speech  society  with  all  its  bless- 
ings, civilization  with  all  its  advantages,  man  in  his 
present  condition  are  impossible.  Yet  without  these  in- 
struments of  speech,  articulate  words  could  not  be  uttered. 
Here  Mr.  Darwin's  difficulty  is  simply  insurmountable. 
Did  the  man-ape  manufacture  his  larynx  in  order  to  be 
enabled  to  speak  articulate  sounds,  of  which  he  had  no 
idea?  Can  so  important  an  organ,  upon  which  the  entire 
fate  of  humanity  depends,  be  produced  by  an  animal? 
Where  is  the  analogy,  the  parallel  case?  Has  man,  or 
has  any  animal,  by  any  exertion  ever  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing such  an  important  instrument  in  his  body?  Ex- 
perience answers  emphatically,  no.  Common  sense  can 
only  ridicule  the  idea,  that  without  any  imaginable 
■cause  an  animal  should  entertain  the  notion  of  producing 
articulate  speech.  Our  horses,  dogs,  cows,  and  other  do- 
mestic animals,  especially  the  Arab's  camel,  have  asso- 
ciated with  man  thousands  of  years,  still  none  have  ac- 
■quired  a  larnyx  in  his  throat.     He  can  not  be  man  without 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  61 

articulate  speech.-  No  animal  speaks  and  none  has  a 
larnyx,  consequently  man  must  have  appeared  on  this^ 
earth  with  these  organs  of  speech,  the  cause  of  speech  in 
his  mind  and  its  instruments  in  his  body.  Therefore,  if  it 
were  for  no  other  reason,  man  could  never  have  been  an 
ape  or  any  other  animal. 

But  here  we  step  outside  of  anatomy  upon  the  field  of 
psychology,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  confuse  my  hearers. 
Therefore  I  must  leave  the  psychological  argument  for  our 
next  lecture,  and  stop  here.  You  see  the  single  points  of 
dissemblance  in  anatomy  are  not  supposed  to  constitute 
fully  the  dissemblance  of  man  and  ape.  Take  them  alto- 
gether, and  they  do  establish  the  point.  We  have  befoi-e 
us  in  man  an  entii-ely  anomalous  structure  of  chemical 
and  morphotic  peculiarity.  We  have  before  us  a  bipedal, 
erect,  and  speaking  being,  with  hands  which  Aristotle  call- 
ed the  instrument  of  instruments,  an  external  appearance 
different  from  all  animals,  head,  eye,  and  countenance 
peculiar  to  themselves  only,  which  none  can  rationally 
explain  except  by  another  cause;  another  cause  must  be 
at  work  in  the  construction  of  man,  another  at  the  con- 
struction of  animals. 

It  is  various  differentation  of  vital  force.  Yet,  if 
there  were  no  structural  dissemblances  between  man  and 
ape,  if  man  were  completely  ape-like  in  his  body;  his 
mind,  his  intelligence,  his  moral  feelings  and  his  works 
would  fully  distinguish  him  and  entitle  him  to  the 
consciousness  that  man  is  a  man  for  all  that,  and  nothing 
can  be  compared  to  him.  We  have  no  confreres  among 
the  animals.  They  can  not  think  with  us,  hence  they  can 
not  feel  with  us.  But  we  discuss  this  point  in  our  next 
lecture. 


€2  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 


LECTURE  VIII. 


HOMO-BRUTALISM — REVIEWED  PSTCHOLOGICALLT. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — It  appears  to  me,  the  more 
-conclusively  zoologists  and  somatologists  prove  the  ident- 
ity of  human  and  animal  organisms,  the  more  thorough- 
ly they  prove  the  existence  and  substantiality  of  human 
mind  as  the  efficient  cause  of  the  bodily  organism.  For 
there  are  capacities,  abilities,  feelings,  and  aspirations  in 
man,  to  which  the  animal  offers  no  more  analogy  than 
the  squeak  of  a  mouse  to  a  symphony  of  Beethoven;  and 
these  distinguishing  qualities  of  man  are  no  less  facts  in 
science  than  those  revealed  by  telescope  or  microscope, 
experience,  or  experiment,  chemist  or  anatomist.  If  they 
■depend  on  the  organism,  why  are  they  not  in  all  organ- 
isms as  well  as  in  man's?  Or  why  not  at  least  in  those  which 
are  so  similar  to  man,  as  Haeckel  and  Darwin  maintain? 
And  yet  the  psychical  dissemblance  of  man  and  beast  is 
BO  conspicuous  and  self-  evident,  that  the  most  zealous 
apostles  of  homo-brutalism  can  not  help  confessing  the 
utter  incomparableness  of  man  and  brute.  If  we  would 
know  only  this  one  point,  that  those  doctors  dissect,  de- 
scribe, delineate,  dissolve,  and  classify  animals,  which  no 
animal  since  the  days  of  old  grandfather  Adam  has 
thought  of  doing,  it  would  suffice  to  establish  the  utter 
psychical  dissemblance  of  man  and  beast ;  for  it  proves 
tliut  man  reasons  and  the  brute  does  not. 

It  appears  to  me,  that  there  are  two  fundamental  errors 
in  the  psychology  of  homo-brutalism.  The  first  error  is 
this.  The  advocates  of  that  theory  point  out  some  isola- 
ted traits  of  human  intelligence  or  feeling,  disconnected 
with  the  general  character  of  man,  as  prejudiced  secta- 
rians expound  Bible  passages  ;  and  then  attempt  to  show 
that  something  similar  is  manifested  by  this  or  that  ani- 
mal, especially  of  the  lowest  orders,  such  as  the  bee,  ant, 
or  spider.     Having  discovered  some  similiarities  of  this 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  63 

kind  in  various  animals,  one  trait  here  and  another  there, 
they  jump  to  the  conclusion  of  semblance  between  all  men 
and  all  beasts. 

In  every  alleged  fact  of  this  kind,  the  question  recurs, 
is  that  attribute  observed  in  the  animal  really  there,  oris 
it  imposed  on  it  by  the  interested  observer.  This  quest- 
ion well  answered  in  every  particular  case,  that  such  hu- 
manlike attributes  are  indeed  discerned  among  lower  an- 
imals, then  on  the  general  principle  of  evolution,  one  must 
naturally  suppose,  those  humanlike  traits  of  intelligence 
or  feeling  will  increase  in  number  and  quality  as  you  rise 
in  the  progressive  scale  of  organism,  and  approach  man. 
But  no,  the  bee,  ant,  spider,  and  other  little  <;reature8 
«vince  more  intelligence  than  the  dog,  horse,  elephant  or 
a,pe.  Where  then  is  their  psychical  line  of  descendency  up 
to  man?  There  is  none.  Where  is  the  law  upon  which 
to  establish  succession?  There  is  none.  Well  then,  what 
entitles  anybody  to  a  theory  of  psychical  evolution?  As 
the  matter  stands  now,  it  is  easier  to  establish  the  com- 
mon descent  of  man,  with  the  bee,  ant,  or  spider,  from  one 
brutal  ancestry  than  to  support  successfully  the  similar 
hypothesis  in  regard  to  man  and  the  anthropomorphous 
ape. 

Again  isolated  traits  of  humanlike  intelligence  or  feeling 
in  various  animals,  however  apparent,  form  no  criterion 
of  semblance  ;  for  the  human  mind  which  makes  his  char- 
acter, is  indivisible.  It  consists  not  of  this  or  that  special 
trait  without  all  the  others  belonging  thereto.  When  you 
say  man,  you  deal  in  no  fractious.  When  you  say  hu- 
man body,  you  mean  all  the  parts  thereof  as  a  unit. 
When  you  say  human  mind,  you  mean  one  indivisible 
being  in  which  all  traits  of  that  character  ai'e  the  constit- 
uents. You  can  mean  only  one  luminary  when  you  say 
sun  ;  and  all  the  isolated  rays  of  light  you  may  contem- 
plate, have  no  resemblance  to  the  sun.  A  thing,  part  man 
and  part  beast  is  an  anomaly,  like  a  thing  which  is  part 
sun  and  part  moon.  We  can  neither  imagine  nor  think 
it,  nature  offers  no  analogy  to  it.  One  humanlike  trait 
here  and  another  there  scattered  all  over  the  animal  king- 
dom, afford  no  better  foundation  to  Darwin's  hypothesis 
ou  the  descent  of  man,  than  my  hypothesis,  if  1  should 
ever  venture  it,  that  the  sun  evolved  from  the  stars, 
would  afford,  because  each  star  sends  us  some  rays  of 
light  which  resemble  rays  from  the  sun. 

If  there  was  in  existence  any  creature  of  structural  and 
psychical  resemblance  with  man  and  beast,  or  such  a  crea- 
ture was  barely  imaginable  or  thinkable,  the  Darwiuian 


64  tHB   COSMIC   GOD. 

hypothesis  might  deserve  some  credence.  But  as  the  mat- 
ter really  stands,  patching  together  bones,  muscles,  organs, 
traits  of  character,  intelligence,  feelings,  and  gestures- 
from  a  thousand  different  sources,  and  constituting  there- 
of an  anomaly,  to  which  nature  offers  no  analogy,  and 
then  base  upon  this  patchwork  of  imagination  the  useless 
and  aimless  hypothesis  of  man's  descent  from  an  ape,  ia 
my  opinion,  is  simj^ly  absurd  and  fajitastic. 

The  second  error  in  the  psychology  of  homo-brutalism 
is  this.  Its  advocates  look  upon  mind  by  the  category  of 
quantity  instead  of  quality.  They  represent  the  case,  as 
if  there  was  a  grain  of  mind  in  this  animal,  two  grains  in 
that,  three  or  four  in  the  next.  Then  as  ,you  rise  in  tho 
scale  of  evolution  the  quantity  of  mind  increases,  till  you 
reach  man  who  has  several  pounds  of  it ;  that  is  to  say, 
those  who  have  it.  The  savage  has  only  one  pound  of 
mind,  probably,  Isaac  Newton  may  have  had  ten,  and  we 
learned  doctors  of  this  decade,  who  know  so  much  more 
than  all  our  predecessors,  must  have  each  a  twenty-five 
pounder  of  a  mind.  We  must  have  feelings  as  thick  as  a 
beam,  and  thoughts  of  the  specific  gravity  at  least  of  gold, 
with  a  tine  prospect  ahead  of  infinite  growth.  Unfortu- 
nately neither  Moses  nor  Aristotle  has  been  duplicated  in 
history,  and  two  thousand  years  ago  the  children  of  Je- 
rusalem like  our  own  this  day,  commenced  going  to  school 
at  the  age  of  six  ;  so  that  inheritance  did  not  do  us  much 
good. 

With  the  materialist,  of  course,  quantity  is  the  main  cat- 
egoi*y.  In  Darwinism,  many  brutal  minds,  if  such  a  thing 
exists,  make  one  human  mind,  which  is  a  compound  of 
bee  mind,  ant,  and  spider  mind,  fox  mind,  dog  mind,  op- 
possum  mind,  ape  mind,  etc.,  something  like  the  broth  in 
the  kettle  of  Macbeth's  witches. 

Mind  must  be  contemplated  under  the  category  of  qual- 
ity. Eed  is  not  blue,  and  yellow  is  not  purple,  although 
they  are  colors  all  of  them.  A  candle  light  is  no  gas- 
flame,  an  electric  flash  is  no  sunshine,  although  it  is  all 
light  anyhow.  So  no  animal  mind  bears  the  least  sem- 
blance to  any  human  mind,  nor  can  all  the  millions  of 
brutal  spirits  in  the  aggregate  make  one  human  mind,  aS 
little  indeed,  as  all  oceans  can  be  set  in  place  of  one  nioon. 
One  thing  can  not  be  another,  which  is  of  other  qualities, 
as  other  qualities  are  manifestations  of  another  force 
which  is  the  thing's  substance.  You  can  not  speak  of 
more  or  less  mind;  you  can  only  speak  of  another  mind. 
Therefore,  if  the  Darwinian  evolution  of  organisms  could 
be  established,  evolution  of  mind    is  no  less  impossible; 


HOMO-BRUTALISM    REVIEWED.  65 

and  it  is  infinitely  strange,  that  reasoners  should  not 
detect  prima  vista  these  two  fundamental  errors. 

Look  upon  the  matter  from  the  empirical  side,  and  you 
arrive  at  the  same  result  precisely.  The  most  superficial 
psychologist  must  be  able  to  discover  the  following  strong- 
ly marked  distinctions  of  man  and  beast: 

All  the  instincts  and  manifestations  of  the  animal  are 
resultants  from  the  principle  of  preservation,  self-preser- 
vation, and  preservation  of  the  race.  This  principle  is 
the  animal's  center,  toward  which  all  its  functions  and 
exertions  tend,  from  its  birth  to  its  death.  If  let  alone  to 
its  instincts,  it  does  nothing  else.  It  divides  its  time  in 
periods  of  feeding,  propagation,  rest,  and  what  belongs 
immediately  to  either.  It  manifests  no  other  wants,  de- 
sires, wishes,  hopes,  or  fears.  Ail  observation  of  animal 
nature  has  not  led  outside  of  this  periphery ;  so  that  all 
biologists,  Mr.  Darwin  included,  must  admit  this  univer- 
sal criterion  of  animal  nature.  In  exact  harmony  with 
this  principle,  is  also  the  animal's  mental  capacity.  It 
knows  no  more,  nor  does  it  possess  any  impulse  or  capac- 
ity to  know  more,  than  the  objects  connected  directly  with 
its  preservation.  All  observation  of  .  animal  dexterity 
has  not  revealed  one  fact  leading  beyond  this  narrow  limit. 
Therefore  we  may  lay  down  as  a  fact,  animal  life  is 
entirely  subjective,  without  the  power  of  ideality  or 
objectivity. 

The  lowest  instincts  of  man,  those  which  he  continually 
seeks  to  modify,  to  check,  and  to  control  by  his  moral- 
intellectual  force  and  its  ideals,  are  the  resultants  of  the 
self-same  instinct  of  preservation,  self-preservation  and 
preservation  of  the  race.  The  combat  of  this  instinct  and 
its  resultants  on  the  one  side,  and  the  ideals  of  its  intellec- 
tual, moral,  aesthetical,  and  religious  nature,  on  the  other 
side,  is  incessant  and  perpetual.  True  humanity  begins 
with  the  victories  of  the  latter  and  the  submission  of  the 
former.  In  strict  harmony  therewith  is  also  man's  power 
of  cognition,  which  extends  to  all  objects,  real  or  ideal, 
their  qualities  and  the  abstractions  thereof  Hence  human 
life  is  subjective  objective,  with  the  power  of  ideality  and 
objectivity  ;  or  in  other  words,  human  nature  begins  there,, 
where  animal  nature  has  reached  its  highest  and  last  funct- 
ion ;  man  begins  where  the  animal  ceases ;  hence,  again,, 
human  nature  bears  no  resemblance  whatever  to  animal 
nature. 

This  is  not  the  case  with  the  savage,  says  the  Darwin- 
ist, nor  with  the  brutalized  persons  in  civilized  society. — 
We  say,  to  a  certain  extent    it  is.    Few   if  any  human. 


66      -  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

beings  are  so  savage,  that  they  have  no  moral  and  relig- 
ious ideas  at  all ;  having  any,  however  crude,  the  nature, 
combat,  and  results  are  the  same  in  kind  as  with  the  man 
of  higher  and  more  ideals. 

Besides,  if  all  our  ancestors  were  savages  at  one  time, 
they  must  have  evidently  had  in  themselves  .that  moral, 
intellectual  force  and  ideality,  which  enabled  and  com- 
pelled them  to  rise  above  their  lower  instincts,  or  else 
they  could  not  jtossibly  have  done  it.  Having  that  force 
and  ideality  in  them,  they  were  no  more  like  animals 
than  the  living  germ  is  like  the  grain  of  sand,  although 
identical  in  shape  and  quantity.  Those  persons  in  civili- 
zed society  who  live  a  merely  brutal  life,  only  prove 
man's  freedom  to  go  as  far  as  suicide,  which  no  animal 
can  do;  while  the  others  prove,  that  human  nature  actu- 
ally begins,  where  animal  nature  ceases.  If  only  one 
among  a  thousand  would  prove  this,  it  would  not  alter  the 
case  ;  it  would  still  prove  that  such  is  human  nature. 

But,  says  the  Darwinist,  perhaps  the  animal  also  might 
be  brought  up  to  that  higher  state  of  life,  as  the  dog  has 
learned-  obedience  and  veneration,  the  horse  feels  an  at- 
tachment to  its  rider,  the  cat  flatters  the  kind  mistress  of 
the  house,  the  camel  listens  to  its  driver's  songs,  the  ele- 
phant fights  for  its  human  friend,  and  so  on.  All  Dar- 
winists, we  replyg  are  respectfully  requested  to  admit, 
that  naere  probability  without  underlying  facts  furnishes 
no  legitimate  evidence  in  science.  As  far  as  human 
knowlodge  reaches,  it  is  impossible  to  develop  a  human 
mind  in  any  animal.  Whatever  domestic  animals  may 
have  learned  of  man,  has  been  artificially  imposed  on 
them.  It  is  not  theirs,  it  is  not  the  fruit  of  any  germ 
within  them.  It  is  mechanical  action,  mechanically  im- 
posed. Send  them  away  from  man,  and  in  a  short  time 
they  re-assume  their  natural  instincts  and  characters ; 
but  with  man,  his  culture  is  his  own.  His  particular 
character  is  the  fruit  of  germs  within  him.  His  humanity 
grows  out  of  his  human  nature.  He  is  himself  the  mor- 
al, intellectual,  sesthetical,  and  religious  being,  who  may 
impose  some  rules  and  feelings  on  the  animals  about  him. 
All  the  wit  of  domestic  animals  proves  as  little  the  re- 
semblance of  human  and  animal  nature,  as  artificial  hy- 
brids prove  the  Darwinian  origin  of  species,  by  a  suppos- 
ed law  of  mechanical  transmutation. 

Besides,  we  have  before  us  proof  positive  that  animal 
nature  can  never  become  human  nature.  We  know  the 
existence  and  nature  of  a  force  by  the  effects  it  produces. 
There  is  no  other  criterion  to  recognize  and  characterize 


HOMO-BRUTALISM   REVIEWED.  67 

force.  We  examine  the  phenomena  and  judge  the  force 
which  produces  thera.  We  have  before  ua  all  which  ani- 
mals have  done,  and  all  which  men  have  done.  The 
fhenomena  show  two  entirely  different  forces  at  work, 
n  man's  sphere  we  have  before  us  the  entire  work  of 
history,  the  gigantic  structure  of  civilization,  discussed 
above  in  the  lectures  on  the  objectivity  of  the  human 
mind.  Here  is  language  with  all  the  mental  treasures 
stored  away  in  millions  of  minds  and  millions  of  volumes, 
all  by  the  means  and  in  the  form  of  articulate  sounds. 
Here  is  the  fathomless  ocean  of  science,  all  inaccessible 
and  incomprehensible  to  the  animal,  because  without  lan- 
guage it  can  not  form  abstract  ideas.  The  animal  has  no 
idea  of  numbers,  as  I  know  from  repeated  experiments. 
Most  of  the  domestic  animals  have  no  steroscopic  vision  ; 
any  white,  flat  and  oval  body  will  do  a  hen  for  a  nest 
egg.  Most  of  them  can  not  distinguish  colors,  and  will 
eat  black  dyed  grass  and  grain  just  as  well.  Most  of 
them  have  no  idea  of  distance,  so  that  the  dog  barking  at 
the  moon  sees  her  very  near  and  imagines  she  approach- 
es the  dog's  own  standing  point.  Without  the  power  of 
abstraction,  the  knowledge  of  numbers,  distance,  exten- 
sions, aud  colors,  to  stop  here,  the  animal  is  incapable  of 
making,  classifying  and  generalizing  experiences,  or  to 
have  any  correct  knowledge  of  the  things  of  its  cognition. 
It  can  have  neither  a  past  nor  a  future,  it  lives  in  the 
present  continually.  It  can  remember  certain  persons 
and  things  as  totalities,  but  not  the  qualities  and  criteria 
thereof.  Therefore  it  forgets  rapidly  the  past  and  the 
objects  seen  or  heard,  possesses  none  by  its  criteria, 
can  reproduce  none  outside  of  itself,  can  not  combine, 
reproduce  or  invent  in  any  form.  Mr.  Darwin  never  in- 
forms us  of  the  pictures  drawn  or  painted  by  elephants, 
statues  carved  out.  by  monkeys,  useful  implements  or  or- 
naments made  by  horses  or  dogs,  musical  instruments  or 
new  compositions  made  by  birds,  or  the  mathematical 
problems  solved  by  bees,  spiders,  and  ants.  The  animal 
can  not  get  outside  of  itself,  because  there  is  nothing  in  it 
to  be  objectivated ;  man  continually  objectivates  his  mind 
because  he  has  one.  ^ 

Mr.  Darwin's  animal  aesthetics  is  manifested  in  each 
animal's  bodily  ornaments  ;  man's  aesthetics  is  objecti- 
vated mind  in  works  of  art  and  external  ornament.  Mr. 
Darwin's  animal  morals  consist  of  some  unconscious  and 
particular  habits  of  some  domestic  animals  ;  man's  morals 
begin  with  the  universal  principle  of  respect  for  the  good 
and  the  true  outside  of  himself,  and  the  consciousness  of 


68  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

freedom  to  govern  his  instincts.  Mr.  Darwin's  animal  re- 
religion  consists  of  the  dog's  brief  respect  for  his  master 
of  to-day;  and  man's  religion  begins  with  the  cognition 
of  the  invisible  God,  the  ideal  of  ail  his  ideals.  Mr.  Dar- 
win's animal  intelligence  consists  of  a  continued  sameness 
of  certain  mechanical  performances;  and  man's  intelligence 
is  manifested  in  perpetnal  variations,  combinations  and 
inventions.  How  in  the  world,  men  and  scholars  can 
compare  those  entirely  different  qualities  and  manifesta- 
tions, and  discover  in  them  any  resemblance, is  as  incom- 
prehensible an  absurdity  to  me,  as  one,  in  presence  of  all 
the  creations  of  the  human  mind,  and  in  absence  of  any 
creations  of  the  animal  mind,  can  still  maintain,  both  are 
of  the  same  kind.  If  it  is  true  that  a  force  must  manifest 
itself,  and  we  know  its  existence  and  nature  by  its  re- 
sultants ;  then  it  must  be  equally  true,  that  the  moral-in- 
tellectual force,  mind-force,  human  soul,  or  whatever  it 
may  be  called,  is  in  man  only,  because  it  manifests  itself 
in  human  creations  of  intelligence,  morals,  aesthetics  and 
religion,  it  is  objectivated  ;  and  it  is  not  in  the  animal, 
because  it  is  not  manifested  in  any  creations.  This  force 
not  being  in  the  animal,  hence  animal  nature  can  never 
be  changed  into  human  nature,  as  nothing  can  come  out 
of  nothing. 

The  lowest  Australian  savage  stands  as  high  above  and 
as  distinct  from  the  anthropomorphous  ape,  as  Isaac 
I^ewton  stood  above  the  lowest  savage  ;  for  the  offspring 
of  that  very  savage  can  be  educated  and  humanized,  and 
the  ape  remains  an  ape,  whatever  training  you  give  him; 
simply  because  there  is  human  mind  in  man,  and  another 
principle  of  life  in  the  animal.  The  Australian  abori- 
gine is  a  deterioi'ated  Ethiopian,  thrown  back  from  hu- 
man habitation,  probably  by  the  combat  for  existence  and 
other  causes,  brutalized  by  exclusion  and  isolation  ;as  was 
the  case  with  our  Northern  Indians  cut  off  Irom  their 
Southern  cognates.  Therefore  all  human  beings,  if  taken 
care  of  in  their  infancy,  can  be  educated  and  humanized, 

1  do  not  mean  to  say,  that  I  have  to  advance  no  more 
against  Mr.  Darwin's  homo-brutalism  ;  lor  the  whole  ap- 
plication of  natural  and  sexual  selections,  combat  for  ex- 
istence, variability  and  inheritance,  to  the  development 
and  history  of  man,  is  radically  erroneous,  because  second- 
ary causes  are  made  primary  ones;  and  I  might  discuss 
every  point  separately.  I  mean  to  say,  no  more  is  nec- 
cessary  in  order  to  upset  the  hypothesis.  It  is  not  based 
upon  any  known  fact  and  explains  none.  It  is  useless  in 
all  departments  of  human  knowledge  and  practice.     It  is 


HOMO-BRUTALISM  REVIEWED.  69 

nugatory  to  morals,  robs  man  of  the  consciousness  of  his 
dignity  and  pre-eminence,  and  brutalizes  him.  There  ex- 
ists no  anatomical  resemblance  between  man  and  any 
known  animal,  as  a  complete  and  full  organism.  There 
exists  no  resemblance  whatever  between  human  mind, 
his  intelligence,  ethics,  aesthetics  and  religion,  and  the 
principle  of  life  discoverable  in  the  animal,  no  resem- 
blance in  man's  creations  and  animal  doings.  I  expect 
to  have  proved  all  this,  and  think  no  more  is  necessary 
for  intelligent  peopie,  to  be  convinced  of  the  utter  absurd- 
ity of  homo-brutalism.  Therefore  I  say  no  more  on  this 
topic. 

It  would  be  in  proper  place  now,  to  discuss  the  origin 
of  species  ;  but  we  are  not  prepared  to  do  it,  before  we 
have  taken  a  general  survey  of  ontology  and  biology, 
in  order  to  ascertain  and  establish  a  principle  upon  which 
to  base.  We  must  know  whether  there  is  mind  outside 
of  man,  or  there  is  none,  in  order  to  decide  whether  mech- 
anical or  intellectual  causes  were  active  at  the  origin  of 
species.  It  suflBces  to  our  present  purpose  to  know,  that 
the  theories  and  hypotheses  of  homo-brutalism  do  not  and 
can  not  refute  our  starting  point  in  this  inquiry,  viz.: 
there  is  mind,  and  this  will  lead  us  on  to  the  very  ob- 
jective point  we  seek  to  reach,  the  Cosmic  Grod. 


1^ 


70  THB   COSMIC   GOD. 


LECTURE  IX. 


ELEMENTARY  ONTOLOGY. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen: — Nothing  is  more  familiar  and 
appears  more  wonderful  to  ua  than  the  nocturnal  sky  with 
its  millions  of  silent  and  scintillating  worlds  floating  mys- 
teriously in  the  fathomless  deep  of  the  universe.  Yet 
there  is  something  more  wonderful  even  than  the  stars, 
and  that  is  the  immense  space  in  which  they  are  mere- 
sparks,  like  stations  far  apart,  to  serve  as  resting  pointa 
to  the  mind,  gazing  on,  and  coursing  through  the  vast 
and  boundless  expansion.  It  is  extremely  diflScult  to  form 
a  correct  idea  of  space,  if  we  begin  to  think  that  the  mean 
distance  of  the  Centauri  from  the  earth  is  calculated  at 
twenty  billions  of  miles  ;  that  the  distance  of  the  Sirius  is 
six  time  that  of.the  Centauri,  so  that  it  takes  its  rays  of 
light  fifteen  and  one  half  years  to  reach  our  earth ;  and 
rising  thus  from  constellation  to  constellation,  according 
to  magnitude,  up  to  the  milky-way,  and  the  nebulae,  and 
imagine  that  the  rays  of  some  stars  take  thousands  of  yeara 
to  reach  our  earth,  space  appears  too  immense  for  the 
human  mind  ;  and  yet  wo  can  hardly  imagine  how  email  a 
fraction  of  the  universe  that  portion  is  which  we,  with  our 
best  telescopes,  can  discover  from  our  standpoint  on  this 
earth.  The  most  wonderful  of  all,  however,  by  far  more 
marvelous  than  stars  and  space,  is  man's  mind  with  its 
self-consciousness,  which  knows  both  stars  and  space,  and 
contemplates  both  ^to  ascertain  their  mysteries  not  re- 
vealed to  the  eye.  Man  is  nature's  most  profound  mys- 
tery. 

Before  we  can  go  on  with  our  lectures,  we  must  form 
some  fundamental  idea  of  the  nature  of  this  universe,  in* 
which  and  of  which  all  things  are.  "We  must  attempt  to 
investigate  and  explain  the  nature,  essential  properties, 
and  relations  of  all  things  as  man  comprehends  them  ;  and 
this  science  is  called  Ontology,  from  onta^  "all  things,"" 
and  ^0^05,  "a  discourse  or  espoeition." 


ELEMENTARY    ONTOLOGY.  71 

The  first  question  in  ontology  is  necessarily  elementary. 
"What  18  the  primary  element  of  which  all  these  things 
ai'e  made?  This,  however,  is  the  diverging  point  of  the 
two  systems  of  philosophy,  known  as  materialism  and 
spiritualism.  In  materialism,  matter  is  the  substance,  and 
the  forces  inherent  in  matter  create,  preserve  and  govern 
all  which  is  in  this  universe,  mechanically  and  automati- 
cally. In  spiritualism,  spirit  or  mind  is  the  substance, 
and  the  forces  which  create,  preserve  and  govern  all  things 
in  this  universe,  are  manifestations  of  the  will  of  that 
spirit,  mind  or  intelligence. 

We  must  first  consider  the  claims  of  materialism  as  a 
philosophy,  i.  e.,  a  system  of  thoughts  which  expounds 
the  universe  with  all  its  beings  and  their  relations,  as  far 
as  human  reason  and  experience  reach. 

All  materialists  agree  that  there  is  only  one  substance 
in  this  universe,  which  is  matter  ;  still  materialistic  ontol 
ogy  i&  of  two  kinds,  atomistic  and  dynamistic.  Dynam- 
istic  ontology  maintains,  the  primary  element  of  the  uni- 
verse i^  force,  and  crossing  forces  produce  and  shape  mat- 
ter. Atomistic  ontology  maintains  the  primary  element 
of  the  universe  is  matter,  and  this  is  the  theory  which  we 
propose  to  investigate  in  this  lecture. 

Atomistic  materialism  starts  out  with  the  axiom,  only 
that  which  the  senses  can  perceive,  capable  of  being  sen- 
sually experienced,  has  existence  in  reality.  All  objects 
must  appear  bodily,  moveable  in  space,  and  timely,  chang- 
ing with  and  in  time.  Matter  filling  space  is  the  eternal 
and  imperishable  substratum  of  all  being,  motion  an|^ 
change.  It  consists  primarily  of  its  smallest  parts,  called 
atoms.  The  variety  of  the  sensual  objects  depend  on  the 
different  composition  and  configuration  of  the  atoms  by 
forces  which  exist  in  them  and  inseparable  from  them. 
All  motionand  generation  in  nature  must  be  derived  from 
the  quantr^ve  proportion  of  the  atoms  and  their  inherent 
forces  of  pressure  and  concussion.  These  two  forces  pro- 
duce the  entire  mechanism  of  nature,  and  appear  by  the 
various  configurations  of  the  atoms  as  cohesion  or  organ- 
ic life,  as  gravitation  or  Mr.  Huxley's  philosophizing 
brain,  as  the  underlying  and  motor  power  of  all  that  is, 
was,  or  will  be,  in  molecule,  planet,  solar  system  or  sys- 
tems; the  lion's  roaring  and  preying,  Csesar  crossing  the 
Rubicon,  the  great  American  rebellion,  and  the  Germans 
besieging  Paris,  prairie  fires,  burning  forests,  and  the  con- 
flagration of  Chicago,  all  facts,  phenomena,  thoughts,  feel- 
ings, instincts,  passions,  deeds,  and  omissions,  all  which 
history  and  nature  may  show  iu  all  eternity,  is  the  pro- 


72  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

duct  of  the  atoms  and  their  inherent  forces  of  pressure 
and  concussion.  It  is  all  one  piece  of  mechanism,  dead, 
and  dumb,  all  inevitable  necessity  and  blind  casualty 
This  I  believe,  is  a  fair  and  impartial  statement  of  atom- 
istic materialism  as  ontology,  and  we  will  for  the  sake  of 
brevity  call  it  atomism. 

This  atomistic  ontology  of  an  automatic  universe,  is  usu- 
ally illustrated  by  the  ficticious  spirit  which  La  Place  ad- 
vanced. He  supposes  an  omniscient  spirit,  one  who 
knows  all  atoms  and  their  inherent  forces,  together  with 
all  possible  combinations  which  they  are  capable  of  enter, 
ingin  a  sun  or  a  crystal,  a  man's  brain,  or  an  infusorium- 
That  spirit  would  also  know  all  phenomena  of  nature, 
physical,  moral  and  mental,  which  must  occur  in  all  eter- 
nity. As  we  calculate  an  eclipse  or  a  transition  in  advance, 
that  spirit  could  say,  when,  where,  and  why  one  will  com- 
mit suicide,  fall  in  love,  establish  an  empire,  or  feel  des- 
pondent on  account  of  boots  being  too  narrow,  or  a  din- 
ner spoiled ;  because  all  and  every  thing  comes  from  the 
atom  with  its  inherent  forces  of  pressure  and  concussion. 

According  to  atomism,  you  will  readily  understand 
ffisthetics  and  ethics,  freedom  and  virtue,  individuality 
and  character,  merits  and  demerits,  religion  and  morals, 
justice  and  duty,  self-government  and  self-improvement, 
in  brief,  all  that  makes  man  and  society,  fulls  dead  to  the 
ground  as  an  unwarranted  superstition,  unworthy  of  any 
enlightened  naturalist  ;  as  all  and  every  thing  depends 
upon  the  casual  or  necessary  configuration  of  atoms  and 
the  resultants  of  diagonal  and  inherent  forces,  beyond  the 
control  of  God  or  man,  intelligence  or  fate,  will  or  passion, 
beyond  the  control  of  nature  itself  But  this  is  no  argu- 
ment against  atomism  as  a  fact,  for  the  materialist  can 
say,  the  universe  will  not  conform  to  your  notions  of  util- 
ity or  your  desires  of  happiness.  It  is  as  it  is,  and  where 
your  notions  and  desires  run  contrary  to  the  fact,  you 
labor  under  error  and  self-delusion,  which  you  had  better 
correct  as  fast  as  you  can.  The  spiritualist  might  reply 
to  this,  man  and  society  being  within  the  realm  of  nature, 
and  according  to  materialism  in  perpetual  revolt  against 
her  laws,  then  either  man  is  supernatural,  preternatual  or 
any  way  above  the  laws  of  nature  in  certain  respects;  or 
these  laws  of  human  nature,  such  as  self-consciousness,  free- 
dom, duty,  justice,  virtue,  are  also  natural  laws;  in  either 
case  atomism  contains  a  fundamental  error,  as  in  the  first 
case  the  atom  and  its  forces  govern  not  all  things,  and 
materialism  is  no  philosophy,  leaving  phenomena  unex- 
plained and  unknowable  j  and  in  the  second  case  the  laws 


ELEMENTARY    ONTOLOGY.  73 

of  nature  are  not  that  which  atomism  presents  them  to 
be,  as  the  only  focus  in  which  they  reveal  themselves,  in 
man's  understanding,  they  produce  freedom  and  rational 
intention  and  design,  hence  they  are  neither  absolute  ne- 
cessity nor  casualty.  But  we  will  not  press  this  argument 
here,  simply  on  account  of  its  psychological  nature  it  ex- 
tends outside  the  scientific  material  under  consideration. 

The  fundamental  error  of  all  materialism  is  in  the  self- 
delusion  of  attaching  more  certainty  to  matier  outside  of 
man  than  to  his  intelligence  within  himself.  The  things 
and  the  phenomena  do  not  enter  the  mind  in  reality ;  we 
merely  perceive  them,  we  jDossess  their  images  in  our 
knowledge.  The  entire  material  world  exists  for  us  hu- 
man beings  as  images  of  our  imagination  and  ideas  of  our 
intelligence.  Schopenhauer  calls  the  consciousness  of  this 
truth  the  philosophical  considerateness.  Kant  has  made 
it  the  corner-stone  of  all  philosophy,  and  no  thinking  man 
can  deny  it.  All  our  knowledge  is  subjective,  and  in  the 
first  instance  anthropomorphic.  We  carry  over  our 
thoughts,  feelings  and  form  into  the  objects  of  our  observa- 
tions.  I  see  the  muscles  in  a  neighbor's  face  contract  in  a 
manner  which  I  think  to  exhibit  pain,  or  the  contracting 
muscles  move  the  lips  to  a  smile,  which  I  think  exhibits 
pleasure.  In  both  cases  I  only  think  so,  because  I  have 
experienced  pleasure  and  pain  and  a  similar  contraction  of 
the  muscles.  I  see  tears  issuing  from  a  person's  eye,  and 
judge  by  the  surrounding  circumstances  that  these  are  the 
tears  of  joy  or  sorrow,  because  under  similar  circumstan- 
ces I  have  also  wept.  The  same  is  the  case  with  all  mo- 
tions, gestures,  and  performances  of  man ;  we  understand 
them  onlj^  by  interpretation  of  our  own  experience  and 
feeling  which  we  carry  over  to  other  men,  because  we  think 
they  are  like  us. 

We  do  the  same  things  precisely  with  the  animals,  and 
none  has  done  it  more  extensively  than  Mr.  Darwin.  Ex- 
cept by  interpretation  of  our  own  nature  we  know  noth- 
ing of  animal  or  vegetable  psyche.  We  carrj'  over  our 
own  thoughts,  feelings  and  affects  into  the  animal  or  even 
the  vegetable,  and  adorn  it  with  part  of  our  own  qualities 
and  attributes  and  make  it  human  in  part,  and  then  per- 
suade ourselves  to  believe  they  are  in  the  animal  or  vege- 
table, with  how  much  truth,  we  shall  discoux'se  in  another 
lecture. 

Next  we  carry  over  our  subjective  thoughts,  feelings,  and 
affects  into  inanimate  nature,  and  all  become  human  or- 
ganism, consisting  of  atoms,  which  are  no  more  and  no  less 
than   miniature  men  of  materialistic  imagination.     Then. 


74  THE   COSMIC   OOD. 

■we  find  in  inorganic  nature,  life  and  functions,  such  as  mo- 
tion, sound,  liglit  and  color.  But  there  is  no  motion  ex- 
cept in  the  intelligence  which  notes  the  change  of  place; 
in  the  universe  as  a  whole  everything  is  stationary.  There 
is  no  sound  in  nature  except  for  the  ear  of  organic  beingsf 
it  is  all  mere  undulation  of  the  air.  There  is  no  heat  ex- 
cept for  living  creatures,  no  light  and  no  color  except 
for  eyes  similar  to  ours.  All  these  impressions  exist 
in  our  self-consciousness,  and  what  is  left  of  this  universe- 
of  mechanical  material  construction  is  a  mere  automaton. 
The  mechanism  is  here  as  completely  as  atomistic  pressure 
and  concussion  can  make  it ;  but  it  is  all  dead,  cold,  dark, 
without  thought  and  without  feeling,  none,  not  even  the 
fictitious  spirit  of  La  Place  can  understand  anything  about 
it,  because  it  has  no  attributes,  no  qualities,  no  manifesta- 
tions, it  is    one   solid  piece   of  infinite    machinery. 

Therefore,  the  universe,  in  order  to  be  knowable  in 
the  whole,  or  its  parts,  must  first  be  enlivened,  so  to 
say,  by  intelligence  after  it  has  become  an  ideal  reality 
in  man's  self-consciousness.  Then  intelligence  and  self- 
consciousness  is  the  main  power  upon  which  we  rely  for 
any  and  every  knowledge  of  the  outer  world.  This  must 
be  most  certain  or  we  know  nothing.  But  the  atomist 
turns  the  whole  upside-down,  and  starts  out  wnth  the 
supposed  axiom  that  the  existence  of  the  atoms  and  their 
inherent  forces  is  more  certain  than  my  knowledge  of 
myself.  Here  is  the  fundamental  and  radical  error  of  all 
materialism  as  a  philosophy.  Philosophy  must  expound 
intelligence  and  self- consciousness  and  the  relation  of  all 
objects  thereto.  All  ontology  begins  with  human  nature. 
Therefore  we  opened  this  course  of  lectures  with  investi- 
gations into  the  human  mind.  For  as  long  as  we  w^ere 
not  sure  of  mind,  we  could  not  possibly  be  sure  of  any- 
thing, since  the  things  exist  for  us  only  as  far  as  we  are 
cognizant  of  them.  But  the  atomist  perverts  the  order 
of  things.  He  is  in  the  same  condition  with  the  man 
who  maintains  he  has  no  eyes,  nevertheless  he  is  positive 
of  the  exactness  and  truthfulness  of  the  objects  of  his 
vision. 

Atomism  maintains  to  possess  positive  knowledge  of 
the  nature  of  matter  and  its  inherent  forces,  and  adds 
self-satisfied,  this  is  the  only  positive  knowledge  we  do 
possess  ;  although  it  has  no  means  whatever  to  account 
for  life,  thought,  sensation,  feeling,  consciousness,  and 
kindred  phenomena.  Let  us  see  how  much  truth  is  in 
the  allegation.  It  is  extremely  easy  and  simple  to  main- 
tain, that  matter  consists  of  the  atoms,  for  it  is  a  mere 


ELEMENTARY  ONTOLOGY.  75 

dissolution  of  a  Dody  into  its  smallest  imaginable  or 
thinkable  parts,  entirely  empiric  and  arbitrary.  But 
what  is  the  nature  of  those  atoms?  The  materialist  can 
not  tell  afny  more  or  better  the  qualities  of  the  atom  than 
of  a  large  body  composed  of  them,  or,  vice  versa ;  hence 
the  theory  explains  nothing.  An  atom  can  not  be  imag- 
ined ;  for  however  small  a  pai'ticle  of  matter  you  imagine, 
it  is  always  divisible,  hence  no  atom  which  must  be  indi- 
visible.! If  I  dissolve  the  meteor,  by  destroying  its  in- 
herent cohesion,  I  have  primary  matter.  1  dissolve  this 
matter  into  its  elements,  by  setting  force  against  force, 
and  the  particles  have  become  very  small.  I  divide  them 
ideally,  and  I  have  molecules.  I  reduce  the  molecule 
ideally  to  a  point  without  dimensions,  and  I  have  no  lon- 
ger a  material  atom ;  I  have  a  thought-thing,  without 
material  reality,  something  like  the  mathematical  point, 
a  purely  metaphysical  creature  which  is  something  and 
nothing  at  the  same  time.  The  material  world,  accord- 
ing to  the  atomists,  consists  of  such  atoms  which  are 
something  and  nothing.  But  a  thing  cannot  be  some- 
thing and  nothing  at  the  same  time.  There  is  a  con- 
tradiction in  the  terms.  The  atom  can  not  be  a  material 
something,  or  else  it  must  have  dimensions,  and  be  no 
longer  an  atom.  Hence  the  atom  is  nothing.  Many 
times  nothing  is  always  nothing ;  hence  all  matter  con- 
sists of  nothing.  Here  is  the  foundation  of  all  atomis- 
tic philosophy.  You  see  the  atom  is  as  rude  a  metaphys- 
ical creature,  except  as  a  scaffolding  for  chemistry  and 
physics,  as  the  hob-goblin  of  the  African  savage.  In  one 
case  it  is  a  ghost,  and  in  the  other  a  thing  without  di- 
mensions, still  material  existence  is  claimed  for  both. 
Atomism  first  destroys  the  reality  of  matter  and  then 
maintains  the  existence  of  matter  only  is  known  with 
certainty.     This  is  no  philosophy,  it  is  self-delusion. 

But  if  we  admit,  the  atomist's  knowledge  of  matter  is 
certain,  we  know  next  to  nothing  of  the  universe,  by  his 
method,  and  atomism  is  still  no  philosophy.  This  uni- 
verse, or  as  much  as  we  know  of  it,  contains  a  small  frac- 
tion of  ponderable  matter  in  proportion  to  its  space.  If 
you  calculate  the  space  which  the  solar  system  occupies 
and  the  bulk  of  matter  in  its  various  bo'dies  according  to 
their  different  degrees  of  density,  you  will  find  that  mat- 
ter composed  of  atoms  is  a  small  fraction  in  space.  The 
constancy  and  universality  of  natural  laws  entitle  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  same  proportion  of  matter  to  space 
is  universal.  Matter  occupies  a  small  fraction  in  the  im- 
mensity of  space.     Therefore,  if  we  admit  all  and  every- 


76  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

thing  ever  advanced  by  the  atomists,  we  still  know  next 
to  nothing  of  the  universe.  The  atoms  and  their  inherent 
forces  can  be  thought  in  connection  with  ponderable  mat- 
ter only.  This  has  existence  in  the  worlds  and  their  at- 
mosphere only,  and  outside  thereof  is  the  universe  in 
which  those  bodies  float  like  points,  without  offering  the 
least  analogy  of  the  two  forms  of  existence;  so  that  one 
of  the  ancient  philosophers  'maintained,  space  is  God. 
All  atomistic  theories  taken  as  granted,  they  do  not  be- 
gin to  expound  the  universe  ;  hence  atomism  is  no  phi- 
losophy ;  and  it  is  of  no  possible  good  to  science  except 
as  a  scaffolding  to  chemistry  and  physics,  the  latter  even 
can  do  very  well  without  it. 

We  can  not  be  satisfied  with  atomism  in  our  element- 
ary ontology  ;   because  : 

1.  It  maintains  that  we  know  with  more  certainty  the 
existence  and  qualities  of  matter  -than  the  existence  and 
revelations  of  our  own  mind  in  our  self-consciousness. 

2.  It  can  not  account  for  the  existence  of  life,  thought, 
sensation,  feeling,  self-consciousness,  human  nature,  so- 
■Ciety,  and  history. 

3.  The  fundamental  idea  of  the  atom  is  an  absurdity, 
an  incomprehensible  and  transcendental  creature  of  em- 
piricism, which  negates  the  existence  of  matter. 

4.  The  matter  which  might  be  said  to  consist  of  atoms 
is  a  small  fraction  of  the  space  which  offers  no  analogy 
to  ponderable  matter,  so  that  one  can  not  possibly  ex- 
plain the  other. 

Unable  to  explain  the  nature  of  things,  their  relations 
And  connections,  atomism  is  no  philosophy,  and  we  seek 
an  ontology  upon  which  to  erect   a  philosophical  system. 

The  question  may  justly  be  asked,  if  atomism  is  so 
absurd,  how  did  it  come  to  be  defended  by  so  many  scien- 
tists? We  will  answer  this  question  in  our  next  lecture. 
Here  we  will  only  say  that  in  Germany  and  France  mo- 
nism has  succeeded  atomism  with  many  very  respectable 
specialists.  It  is  given  up  as  an  untenable  position.  Per- 
mit me  also  to  add,  that  most  scientists  are  rather  poor 
philosophers.  They  hold  to  their  school  theories,  in  the 
main,  as  long  as  they  possibly  can.  I  have  seen  very 
fine  scientists  who  were  one-sided  and  thoughtless  secta- 
rians in  religion  ;  and  insignificant  specialists  and  ama- 
teurs who  were  positive  atheists,  simply  because  neither 
of  them  ever  went  into  an  analysis  of  his  thoughts.  They 
<ian  not  philosophize. 


HISTORY   OF   MATERIALISM.  7T 


LECTURE  X. 


HISTOEY  OF  MATEEIALISM. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — Before  entering  upon  the  main 
subject  of  this  lecture,  permit  me  to  state  that  nothing 
can  appear  actualized  in  the  monuments  of  mind,  which 
is  not  in  the  mind.  The  energy  must  be  there  first  be- 
fore it  can  be  realized.  "Whatever  is  not  in  man  he  can 
not  do.  Therefore  we  look  upon  all  monuments  of  ac- 
tualized mind  in  the  works  and  history  of  man  as  equal- 
ly necessary  in  the  great  drama  of  history.  The  super- 
stitions of  the  savage,  in  the  process  of  man's  develop- 
ments, are  as  necessarj'-  as  the  religion,  philosophy,  and 
science  of  cultural  nations.  If  it  were  not  necessary,  it 
would  not  be. 

I  make  this  statement  in  order  not  to  be  misunderstood 
in  regard  to  either  science  or  religion.  Both  of  them 
are,  for  the  consideration  of  philosophy,  mental  elements. 
Their  connection  appears  to  me  in  history  thus  : 

The  human  mind,  when  it  first  began  to  think  con- 
sciously, capable  of  abstraction  and  reflection,  was  ideal- 
istic. The  mind  set  itself  outside  of  itself  in  ideals  of 
religion  and  art.  Both  are  the  offspring  of  spontaneous 
inspiration,  and  creative  of  axiomatic  truth,  with  the  de- 
sire to  realize  them  in  man  and  society,  or  in  works  of 
art.  Both  are  boundless.  They  break  through  the  lim-- 
its  of  reality,  or  even  probability,  into  the  infinite,  and 
are  liable  to  roam  upon  the  broad  ocean  of  phantasy,  far 
beyond  the  secure  haven  of  sober  truth. 

Error  always  produces  practical  results  painful  to  man 
and  society,  irritates  the  reasoning  faculty,  and  chal- 
lenges resistance.  This  gives  rise  to  philosophy,  which 
stops  the  erratic  reveries  ;  and  calls  the  products  of  the 
mind  before  the  judgment  seat  of  reason,  to  establish  an 
equilibrium  between  the  work  of  spontaneity  and  the 
force  of  reality,  to  arrive  at  approximate  truth. 


78  TEE   COSMIC   GOD. 

Again,  philosophy  is  after  all  speculative,  consequent- 
ly liable  to  the  influence  of  phantasy.  Like  religion  and 
art,  it  is  engaged  in  the  solution  of  problems  pointing  to 
the  infinite,  so  that  it  often  leaves  the  terra  firma  of  real- 
ity. Nevertheless  it  can  not  desert  this  ground  entirely, 
therefore  expounds,  shapes,  and  forms  it,  to  harmonize 
■with  the  main  idea  or  theory  of  the  peculiar  system. 
This  leads  to  grave  errors  as  well  as  to  great  discoveries 
in  natural  science.*  Here  come  in  again  the  errors,  the 
painful  results,  the  irritation  and  challenge  of  reason; 
■which  rouses  the  mind  to  another  species  of  activity,  the 
investigation  of  special  provinces  of  reality,  research, 
and  experiment,  to  establish  facts  and  laws  of  the  things 
as  they  are  in  essence  and  function.  So  science  corrects 
philosophy,  as  philosophy  cori-ects  religion  and  art. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
religion  and  art  produce  the  material  for  philosophy,  aud 
philosophy  produces  the  ideas  for  science,  which  returns 
its  results  to  philosophy.  Again,  philosophy  in  regard 
to  religion  and  art  must  be  skeptical  and  critical,  must 
doubt,  analyze,  reject  and  adopt,  in  order  to  construct ; 
and  science  must  be  skeptical  and  critical  in  relation  to 
philosophy  in  the  same  manner  and  for  the  same  reason. 
Still  it  is  only  from  the  harmony  of  these  three  elements 
of  our  knt)wledge,  and  these  three  methods  of  our  cog- 
nition, that  truth  rises  in  her  sublime  beauty  and  majes- 
tic grandeur. 

Besides  the  numerous  benefits  of  practical  life  and  the 
progress  of  intelligence  resulting  from  natural  science,  it 
acts  also  as  the  centripetal  force  on  philosoj^hy,  religion, 
and  art,  which  are  centrifugal  in  their  very  nature.  It 
calls  them  back  to  the  facts  of  material  reality.  There- 
fore no  rational  man  will  expect  of  the  scientist  that,  in 
his  science,  he  be  anything  but  a  materialist.  Natui'e 
must  explain  itself.  He  has  no  use  for  miracles  or  any 
divine  interposition,  as  long  as  he  seeks  the  facts  and 
•  laws  of  matter.  Nor  can  it  be  expected  of  the  scientist 
to  adopt  the  method  of  cognition,  peculiar  to  religion, 
art,  or  philosophy.  He  must  have  his  own,  because  his 
field  of  labor  is  peculiar  to  itself.  All  that  is  expected  of 
him  is  not  to  arrogate  to  himself  all  knowledge  of  all 
truth,  to  the  exclusion  and  negation  of  all  other  prov- 
inces of  mental  activity. 

Therefore,  whatever  I  might  say  about  materialism  as 
&  philosophy,  can  not  and  does  not  refer  to  the  method 
of  the  natural  sciences,  which  I  think  is  jjerfectly  correct, 
or  personally  to  any  scientist,  who  must  do  his  work  in 


HISTORY  OF  MATERIALISM.  79 

his  own  way  in  order  to  do  it  well.  I  have  nothing  to 
flay  against  specialists,  as  most  all  scientists  proper  are. 
I  merely  review  the  philosophical  attempts  of  specula- 
tive scientists — some  of  them  do  not  even  deserve  this 
title — to  deify  matter  and  establish  new  creeds  of  scien- 
tific dogmas,  as  men  like  Vogt,  Moleschot,  Buechner, 
Haeckel,  Huxley,  and  Tyndal  do.  I  investigate  to  dis- 
cover the  worth  of  their  pretensions.  Now  let  us  go  to 
history. 

When  in  ancient  Greece  mythology  had  run  through 
its  natural  cycle,  the  classical  poets  had  poured  forth 
their  best  of  the  beautiful  and  the  true,  and  the  sculptors 
had  carved  out  the  ideas  of  cold  marble,  error  challenged 
reason,  which  took  hold  upon  the  accumulated  material, 
and  opened  the  history  of  formal  philosophy,  with 
Thales,  Hippo,  Aneximenes,  Anaximander,  and  Heraclit. 
The  starting  point  was  one  upon  which  the  theology  of 
that  day  had  heaped  myth,  and  explained  nothing.  It 
was  the  problem  of  the  stability  of  being  and  the  mobil- 
ity of  beings.  Nothing  remains  as  it  is  and  what  it  is,, 
yet  all  remains  the  same  forever.  The  mind  attempted 
to  penetrate  the  realms  of  mutations  in  search  of  the  im- 
mutable cause. 

It  must  not  be  expected  of  those  thinkers  that  they 
solved  the  problem,  although  they  prepared  it  well  for 
future  reasoners.  They  were  not  acquainted  with  the 
principles  of  mind  and  intelligence.  They  had  no  psy- 
chology, no  formal  logic,  and  no  idea  of  universal  intelli- 
gence ;  hence  the  question  reduced  itself  to  the  nature  of 
matter,  in  which  the  solution  of  the  pi'oblem  was  sought. 
Without  knowledge  of  natural  laws,  or  even  forces,  their 
speculations  on  matter  were  crude,  and  in  many  in- 
stances childish.  Without  science  they  could  hardly  be 
otherwise.  The  results  of  a  long  cycle  of  speculation, 
with  the  exception  of  two  abstract  ideas,  causation  and 
being,  were  very  meagre,  and  like  the  starting  point  and 
paganism  the  world  over,  materialistic,  first  in  the  form 
monism,  which  considers  all  the  universe  one  consecutive 
mass  of  matter  with  the  cause  of  motion  within  itself, 
and  motion  as  the  cause  of  all  other  phenomena  in  na- 
ture. Matter  continually  brings  forth  individual  beings, 
and  absorbs  them  again  as  the  waves  rise  from  the  ocean 
to  fall  back  again.  Then  followed  the  rude  analysis  of 
matter  into  three  and  finally  four  elements  with  the 
problem,  which  of  the  elements  predominates  in  univer- 
sal causation?  At  last  philosophical  analysis  went  be- 
yond the  elements,  imagined  matter  to  consist  originally 


80  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

of  the  smallest  thinkable  parts,  called  atoms,   in   which 
the  cause  of  all  motion  and  being  is  permanent  forever. 

Strabo  thinks  the  Phaenician  Moshus  was  the  author  of 
the  atomistic  hypothesis.  Laertius  and  Cicero  were  of 
the  opinion  that  Leukipp  invented  it,  Anyhow  it  was 
introduced  in  Grecian  philosophy  by  Democritus,  the 
well-known  laughing  philosopher,  sometime  between  470 
and  460  B.  C,  with  whom  everything,  also  the  gods,  was 
an  aggregate  of  atoms.  On  the  other  hand,  Pythagoras 
(540  to  510  B.  C.)  and  the  Italian  school,  had  introduced 
the  mysticism  of  numbers,  and  expounded  the  universe 
by  the  mysteries  of  mathematics. 

Extensive  travels  in  the  East,  especially  in  Egypt, 
Phaenicia,  and  Syria,  then  the  centers  of  culture,  and  the 
close  intercourse  with  the  then  dominant  Persians,  grad- 
ually brought  other  ideas  into  Greece,  so  that  in  the 
fourth  century  B.  C,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  their 
disciples,  made  an  end  to  the  more  ancient  materialism, 
and  built  up  those  systems  of  philosophy,  including  the 
natural  sciences,  which  have  exercised  so  vast  an  influ- 
ence upon  the  progress  of  man,  and  still  do  in  very 
many  instances,  so  that  besides  the  Bible,  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle were  the  main  factors  of  civilization.  Still  mate- 
rialism had  two  more  prominent  disciples,  Epicurus  and 
Lucretius,  who  took  up  and  expounded  the  atomic  hy- 
pothesis:  but  they  were  read  and  studied  only  after  the 
cycle  of  classical  philosophy  had  been  closed,  and  moral 
corruption  had  taken  a  firm  hold  of  the  Eoman,  whom 
the  Stoics  with  their  stern  ethics  could  not  satisfy. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  materialism  was  not  the 
fruit  of  science :  it  was  metaphysical,  set  into  the  world 
in  ages  of  myths,  crude  speculation,  and  considerable  ig- 
norance ;  it  was  the  first  attempt  at  philosophy. 

The  conquests  and  subsequent  corruption  of  Eome,  the 
advent  of  Christianity,  and  the  construction  of  a  huge 
despotism,  made  an  end  to  philosophy,  until  the  Arabs, 
a  century  after  Mohammed,  took  up  again  the  Grecian 
literature,  and  with  it  also  the  classical  philosophy. 
Arabs  and  Jews,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  Chribtian 
scholasts,  were  the  expounders  of  philosophy  in  the 
Middle  Ages  down  to  the  revival  of  letters  in  England 
Also  among  those  Arabs  and  Jews,  a  materialistic  school 
sprang  up  under  the  name  of  Kelam,  which  continued 
the  atomistic  theories,  with  the  only  addition  of  a  Su- 
preme Being,  who  was  to  them  the  Creator  and  governor 
of  the  atoms  ;  and  one  of  those  philosophers  was  the  cel- 
ebrated Ibn  Gabriel.      Saadia  already,  and  after   him  a^ 


HISTORY  OP   MATERIALISM.  81 

number  of  Jewish  reasoners  aown  to  Moses  Maimonides, 
discussed  atomistic  theory,  and  advanced  nearly  all  and 
the  same  arguments  against  it  which  are  in  vogue  now  ^ 
but  our  common  historiographers  are  not  aware  of  these 
facts. 

In  Christendom,  however,  there  is  no  trace  of  atomism 
before  Grassendi.  This  Pierre  Gassendi,  the  learned 
Frenchman  (1592  to  1655)  philosopher  and  mathema- 
tician, the  friend  of  Keppler  and  Galileo,  cotemporary 
and  opponent  of  Descartes,  reproduced  and  enlarged  the 
system  of  Epicurus  and  Lucretius.  At  the  same  time 
Thomas  Hobbes  (1588  to  1679)  advanced  his  materialistic 
system  in  England,  and  found  numerous  admirers  and 
disciples.  These  two  men  started  materialism  in  Chris- 
tendom, and  gave  the  impulse  to  the  revival  of  natural 
science. 

Polemical  discussions  over  materialism,  in  France,  Ger- 
many, England  and  Holland,  were  almost  continual  in  the 
last  part  of  the  17th  and  the  18th  centuries.  In  France 
which  had  no  philosopher  between  Diderot  and  Comte^ 
and  hardly  any  religion,  materialism  produced  atheism, 
which  reached  its  highest  point  in  the  age  of  reason.  In 
Germany,  the  philosophers,  and  especially  Immanuel 
Kant  overcame  atheistic  materialism,  but  succumbed  also 
after  Kant  to  Spinoza's  pantheism,  which  is  not  hostile 
to  science.  In  England  which  had  no  philosophers  after 
Locke  and  Hume,  the  religious  feeling  overcame  mater- 
ialism and  turned  it  into  the  peculiar  English  deism 
Atomism  was  retained  among  scientists,  more  as  a  scaf- 
folding of  chemistry  than  a  principle.  Between  the  days 
of  Kobert  Boyle  (1626  to  1692),  the  founder  of  the  royal 
society,  and  John  Dalton  (1766  to  1844)  both  chiefly 
chemists,  the  conceptions  concerning  atoms  were  fre- 
quently modified,  especially  through  the  influence  of 
Isaac  Newton's  discoveries,  as  was  the  case  alpo  after 
Dalton  had  established  his  theory  of  matter.  None  ever 
thought  of  constructing  a  philosophical  system  on  the 
atomistic  basis.  Scientists  were  mostly  Spinozists,  panthe- 
sists  or  deists  of  some  kind.  This  gave  England  and 
France  the  advantage,  that  their  scientists  speculated 
less  and  worked  more  successfully  for  the  advancement 
of  industry  and  commerce,  while  Germany  was  still  en- 
gulfed in  transcendental  speculation.  The  modern 
English  philosophers  of  nature  have  been  dragged  from 
the  practical  field  by  German  influence,  as  we  shall  see 
instantly,  and  cling  to  atomism  merely  from  scholastic 
prejudice.  The  main  naturalists  who  established  atomisuL 
6 


82  THB   COSMIC  aoD. 

in  science  were  Englishmen  of  great  influence.  It  is  now 
the  system  of  the  schools,  over  which  Mr.  Tyndal  could 
not  come  without  considerable  trouble. 

What  Cromwell  and  his  Ironsides  have  done  for  Eng- 
land and  the  revolution  for  France,  philosophy  and 
science  are  doing  slowly  for  Germany  and  Austria.  Up 
to  the  j-ear  1830  Germany  poetized,  philosophized,  was 
dogishly  loyal  and  transcendentally  patriotic.  The 
wretched  results  of  1830  sent  the  patriots  to  prisons  or 
into  exile;  priests,  professors,  and  artists  were  impressed 
into  the  service  of  absolutism,  in  State  and  church. 
Metternich's  policy  governed  Austria,  Germany,  Italy, 
and  partly  also  France.  Jesuits  and  priests  were  his 
tools  and  he  was  their  patron. 

The  period  of  philosophy  and  poetry  closed  and  there 
was  a  painful  vacuum  in  the  German  mind,  to  observe, 
that  there  was  in  the  neighboring  countries  of  Western 
Europe  not  only  more  liberty  and  more  popular  power, 
but  also  more  wealth  and  prosperity.  It  was  discovered 
that  the  church,  both  Catholic  and  Pi'otestant,  was  the 
right  hand  power  of  the  despotism,  under  which  all  per- 
sons and  things  groaned ;  and  that  philosophy  had  been 
turned  into  a  transcendental  quibbling,  to  support  church 
dogmas  and  retard  the  progress  of  science. 

The  wrath  of  the  sufficiently  cultivated  German  schol- 
ars, liberals  and  patriots,  was  turned  first  against  the 
weakest  of  the  two  great  powers,  against  the  church.  All 
works  of  fiction,  in  order  to  be  popular,  had  to  be  anti- 
Christian. 

Feuerbach,  Schopenhaur  and  Czolbe  did,  from  the  philo- 
sophical standpoint,  the  same  work  as  Strauss  with  his  Life 
of  Jesus,  Bruno  Bauer,  the  New  Catholics,  the  Free  Con- 
gregations and  their  head  leaders  from  the  critical  and 
practical  standpoints.  Dogmatic  Christianity  was  under- 
mined among  the  middle  classes,  which  were  pleased  with 
the  scorning  frivolity  of  Heinrich  Heine  and  his  confreres, 
and  a  peculiar  atheism  sprung  up,  unreasoning  and  fa- 
natical, which  had  no  justification  in  its  own  behalf  ex- 
cept the  hatred  felt  against  Church  and  State. 

Meanwhile  the  scientists  of  Germany  emancipated 
themselves  from  both  theology  and  philosophy,  and 
achieved  great  victories  UDon  all  scientific  fields,  so  that 
science  had  become  the  only  field  of  activity  for  the  Ger- 
man mind.  Science  was  popular,  profitable  and  indepen- 
dent. So  the  ground  was  prepared  for  Vogt,  Moleschott, 
Buechner,  Haeckel,  and  other  apostles  of  mechanical  on- 
.  tology,  to  do  away  not  only  with  church  and  priest,  but 
also  with  the  cause  of  both,  God,  soul,  religion,  freedom. 


HISTORY  OF   MATERIALISM.  83 

and  traditions;  to  do  away  with  all  philosophy  forever, 
and  commence  history  anew  on  the  two  new  dogmas  of  the 
Bew  creed: 

1.  This  world  with  all  that  is  therein  is  a  piece  of  a 
blind  mechanism  without  intelligence  or  final  cause,  the 
work  of  necessity  and  casualty. 

2.  There  is  only  one  way  to  arrive  at  truth,  observa- 
tion and  experiment,  whatever  cannot  be  conceived  by 
the  senses,  exists  not. 

So  the  school  of  modern  materialism  opened  in  Germa- 
ny, Its  influence  on  England  is  evident,  especially  in 
Darwin's  Descent  of  Man  to  which  Haeckel  lately  added 
his  Anthropogenic,  to  place  man  into  the  back  ground  of 
all  animals.  The  blunders  and  arrogance  of  Church  and 
State  in  Germany  and  Austria,  not  science,  are  the  causes 
of  modern  materialism,  and  a  thorough  reformation  of 
both,  radical  in  its  character,  will  be  the  end  thereof  in 
this  cycle  of  history.  The  nineteenth  century  can  not 
go  back  to  the  old  Paganism  and  the  crude  philosophy 
of  Democrit  and  Epicure.  Such  a  retrogression  is  impos- 
sible. -We  can  not  maintain  society  now  on  the  materi- 
alistic creed.  Neither  the  statesman  and  jurist  nor  the 
philosopher  derives  any  benefit  from  it,  and  the  commu- 
nity will  not  part  with  the  ideals  which  make  life  tol- 
erable, virtue  sacred,  and  freedom  man's  natural  birth- 
right. We  can  not  do  without  human  nature  as  long  as 
we  are  men;  but  materialism  as  it  is  now  negates  all  human 
dignity  and  aspirations.  The  fanaticism  against  Church 
and  State  is  a  retribution,  a  necessary  evil,  a  painful  sore 
of  the  impure  blood,  which  heals  already,  since  the  unifi- 
cation  of  Germany  and  the  liberalization  of  Austria.  Ma- 
terialism is  a  necessary  evil,  as  long  as  the  church  under- 
goes not  a  radical  change;  but  it  is  no  philosophy,  which 
explains  the  universe  or  affords  a  sound  substratum  for 
the  construction  of  society.  It  will  die  out  with  the 
causes  which  re-produced  it.  It  always  comes  with  cor- 
ruption in  public  institutions,  and  disappears  at  the  ap- 
proach of  adequate  reformation. 

Eidiculous,  supremely  so,  indeed,  appears  to  us  the 
crude  materialism  of  some  of  our  American  writers,  who 
repeat  slavishly  what  Germans  and  Englishmen  have  said, 
in  many  cases  years  ago,  and  often  refuted  since  then. 
They  adopt  a  poisonous  medicine  without  evil  in  the  so- 
cial organism  to  be  remedied.  Our  State  affairs  are  inde- 
pendent of  the  church,  and  our  priests  and  preachers  are 
harmless  creatures,  and  without  influence  on  public  af- 
fairs.   Some  of  our  materialists  are   mere  amateurs  in. 


84  THE  COSMIC  GOD 

science  and  children  in  philosophy.  Others  have  heard 
or  read  so  long  ago,  and  are  too  indolent  to  hear,  read, 
or  think  again.  I  can  pay  no  regard  to  them  in  these  lec- 
tures, and  expect,  they  will  neither  hear  nor  read  thera. 
lam  ready  now  to  continue  my  regular  course,  and  will 
continue  in  my  next  lecture  on  elementary  ontology. 


DYNAMIC    ONTOLOGY.  85 


LECTURE    XL 


DYNAMIC    ONTOLOGY. 


Ladies  and  GtEntlemen. — The  question  we  discuss  is, 
Is  matter  or  force  the  substance  of  the  beings  in  this 
Ainiverse?  If  matter  is,  then  the  ontology  is  materialistic; 
if  force  is,  then  it  is  dynamistic,  as  the  (xreek  dynamis  sig- 
nifies power  or  force.  Let  us  see  what  we  know  about 
matter. 

The  atoms  of  speculative  science  are  metaphysical 
points  without  reality;  therefore  they  cannot  be  accepted 
•either  as  the  substratum  of  matter  or  the  starting  point 
•of  ontology. 

With  the  atoms  of  speculative  science  the  atomic  forces 
also  fall  to  the  ground;  especially  as  the  latter  are  no 
more  than  abstractions  of  observable  forces,  arbitrarily 
attributed  to  imaginary  atoms,  so  that  we  know  no  more 
and  no  better  of  atomic  forces  than  of  those  observable  in 
the  bulk  of  compound  matter. 

The  atoms  of  chemistry  have  extension  and  weight; 
hence  they  bear  no  analogy  whatever  to  the  atoms  of 
speculative  science. 

There  are  as  many  kinds  of  atoms  as  there  are  ele- 
ments, viz.,  sixty-three,  inclusive  of  Professor  Bunsen's 
coesium  and  robedium,  thirteen  non-metalic  and  fifty  me- 
talic;  so  that  we  know  now  of  pixty-three  kinds  of  matter. 

The  molecule,  which  is  an  aggregate  of  atoms,  is  the 
smallest  bulk  of  hiatter  perceptible,  and  is  supposed  to 
jpossess  all  the  attributes  observable  in  the  large  bulk. 

The  molecule  may  be  an  aggregate  of  atoms  of  two  or 
more  kinds  of  matter;  and  there  are  as  many  kinds  of 
molecules  as  there  are  chemical  compounds. 

Matter  is  inert,  passive,  and  imperceptible,  except  by 
its  qualities;  it  is  moved,  made  active  and  perceptible  by 
the  forces  which  work  on  or  in  it,  so  that  each  quality  of 
anatter  is  a  manifestation  of  force. 

When  we  say  we  see  matter,  we  mean  to  say  that  we 


86  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

see  something  which  reflects  light ;  hence  we  see  the  man- 
ifestation of  a  force.  AVhen  we  say  that  we  can  touch 
matter,  we  mean  to  say  that  we  can  place  our  hands  up- 
on something  which  offers  resistance;  hence  we  have  a 
sensation  of  that  force.  When  Du.  Bois  says  the  particle 
of  iron  is  always  the  same  thing,  whether  in  the  wheel  of 
a  railroad  car,  in  a  meteor,  or  in  the  blood,  he  means  to 
say  it  is  perceptible  in  the  same  manner,  if  effected  by  the 
same  forces.  The  human  mind  can  perceive  ideas  only, 
and  these  are  expressed  in  matter  by  the  changes  ta 
which  the  forces  subject  it. 

Matter  is  the  residuum  of  bulk,  mass,  or  body,  after  all 
forces  are  separated,  a  residuum  which  can  not  be  analy- 
zed any  further,  because  it  is  imperceptible.  The  phy- 
sicist and  mathematician  have  to  do  with  the  forces  ex- 
clusively, paying  no  attention  to  matter.  The  chemist 
investigates  and  contemplates  the  various  processes  of 
composition  and  decomposition  by  the  forces  which  act 
in  or  upon  matter. 

Matter  itself  is  equally  unknown  to  all  of  them,  and  is  no 
factor  in  either  science;  because  it  is  imperceptible.  You 
take  away  the  force  of  molecular  cohesion  or  attraction 
and  you  reduce  the  solid,  granite  or  meteor,  to  a  fluid, 
then  to  gas,  then  to  ether,  t.  e.,  to  zero,  imperceptible  to 
man,  because  it  has  no  qualities,  no  forces  exercise  a  per- 
ceptible influence  on  it.  Let  the  forces  plaj^  again  on  thfr 
ficticious  zero  of  matter,  and  it  changes  again  into  ether, 
gas,  fluid,  and  solid,  again  perceptibe  to  man;  i.  e.,  yoa 
can  not  perceive  the  zero,  but  you  perceive  the  forces 
operating  on  it  and  manifesting  themselves  through  it. — 
This  will  mislead  none  to  deny  the  existence  of  matter,, 
for  it  always  remains  the  substratum  of  perceptible  be- 
ings, although  matter  without  force  is  unknowable,  and  it 
may  well  be  the  creature  of  crossing  forces. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  too  wtJll  used  to  bulk,  body, 
and  mass,  to  think  of  matter  without  force  being  imper- 
ceptible; and  yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  some  time  ago 
this  very  bulk,  body,  and  mass,  free  of  certain  force,  was 
imperceptible,  can  be  made  so  again  by  the  chemist,  and 
is  made  so  continually  by  the  earth's  evaporation  and 
metamorphosis  of  particles  akin  to  exhalation,  which 
forms  the  atmosphere. 

The  very  coal  which  heats  jonr  rooms,  engenders  steam 
in  your  engines,  or  the  matter  which  now  forms  the  bod- 
ies of  your  trees,  was  a  little  while  ago  imperceptible  car- 
bon, and  your  fires  change  it  continually  into  the  same 
state  of  imperceptibility.  Yon  see  whether  matter  at  the 
last  instance  is  not  the  creature  of  crossing  forces,  without 


DYNAMIC  ONTOLOGY.  87 

materiality,  bulk,  body,  or  mass,  is  a  question  not  very 
easily  decided. 

It  must  be  admitted,  anyhow,  that  anything  in  this 
universe  we  can  perceive,  know,  or  think  is  rendered 
perceptible  and  knowable  by  dynamic  or  static 
forces.  We  know  of  this  phenomenal  world,  the  various 
manifestations  of  forces,  and  no  more.  We  can  not  build 
science  on  what  we  know  not.  Being  entitled  to  build 
upon  that  only  which  we  do  know,  and  we  certainly 
know  the  forces  by  their  manifestations,  we  can  adhere 
to  dynamistic  ontology  only  ;  and  the  only  question  from 
our  standpoint  can  be,  whether  dynaraicism  and  spirit- 
ualism are  not  identical. 

The  atomists  understand  this  point  well,  and  being  un- 
able to  deny  the  existence  of  force,  resort  to  the  hypoth- 
esis that  matter  and  force  are  in  fact  one  and  the  same 
thing.  There  is  no  matter  without  force,  and  no  force 
without  matter.  The  two  terms  are  attributes  of  the 
same  substance,  two  abstractions  of  the  same  subject;  or 
also  matter  possesses  force,  i.  e.,  matter  is  the  subject,  and 
force  the  predicate  ;  matter  is,  and  force  is  its  function. 
This  explains  not  attractions  at  great  distances,  the  the- 
ory of  light,. or  the  parallelogram  of  forces;  but  the  atom- 
ist  says  he  advances  the  best  hypothesis  at  his  command. 

Here  the  difficulties  of  atomism  are  numerous.  The 
theory,  on  which  those  very  same  materialists  rely,  leads 
irresistably  to  the  negation  of  matter,  consequently  also 
to  the  negation  of  force,  so  that  nothing  remains.  The 
nothingness  of  the  atom  multiplied  infinitely  with  itself, 
has  always  for  its  product  the  nonentity  of  matter.  If 
force  is  the  function  of  matter,  which  is  not,  then  force 
also  exists  not.  If  both  matter  and  force  are  attributes  of 
the  same  substance,  and  matter  is  not,  then  it  follows 
that  force  alone  is  the  conceivable  attribute  of  the  un- 
known substance,  and  dynamicism  is  established  upon 
the  ruins  of  atomism. 

The  only  materialist  of  high  authority  known  to  me 
who  makes  a  plain  confession  of  this  difficulty  is  Du  Bois. 
He  says  this:  "If  one  asks  what  remains,  if  neither  force 
nor  matter  possesses  reality,  then  those  who  stand  with 
me  upon  the  same  standpoint  will  reply  thus:  "It  is  not 
given  to  the  human  mind  in  these  things  to  reach  be- 
yond a  last  contradiction,"  etc.  "We  possess  sufficient 
renunciation  to  submit  to  the  idea  that  at  last  all  science 
reaches  the  limit,  not  to  comprehend  the  essence  of  things, 
but  to  show  the  impossibility  of  such  comprehension.  So 
in  mathematics,  it  is  not  the  quadrature  of  the  circle,  or 
in  mechanics,  the  ^erpefuwm  mobile,  which  science  must 


88  THE  COSMIC  aoD. 

discover;  it  must  show  the  impossibility  thereof."     Helm- 
holz  makes  similar  confessions. 

However,  this  declaration  of  insufficiency  merely  says, 
from  the  atomistic  standpoint,  we  reach  in  its  last  result 
in  reality  the  nothing  and  in  formality  the  contradiction; 
to  which  I  take  the  liberty  to  add,  therefore  the  atomistic 
standpoint  is  erroneous.  You  misunderstand  the  nature 
of  matter,  then  you  make  force  to  a  function  of  misun- 
derstood matter,  to  land  finally  in  contradiction  and  ab- 
surdity. The  results  of  science  are  correct,  because  they 
are  not  influenced  by  your  theory.  Invert  the  proposi- 
tion, say  force  is  the  subject  and  matter  the  predicate, 
force  is  active  and  matter  passive,  force  is  perceptible  and 
matteris  not,  force  exists  independent  of  matter,  although 
manifested  therein  only  to  human  senses;  and  science  cer- 
tainly losses  nothing,  for  science  must  establish  laws 
which  are  in  force  only,  and  all  those  last  contradictions 
fall  dead  to  the  ground.  That  such  is  the  fact  without 
personification  or  poetical  dreams  is  certainly  demonstra- 
ble. 

Matter  can  be  freed  of  some  forces  acting  upon  it,  and 
others  can  be  conducted  into  it,  as  is  done  every  day; 
hence  force  and  matter  are  separable  and  not  identical, 
not  in  the  abstract  but  in  reality.  You  stamp  or  grind 
a  solid  body  to  particles,  are  you  not  expelling  the  force 
which  connected  them  to  a  compact  mass?  You  dissolve 
a  powdered  material  to  a  fluid,  are  you  not  expelling 
force  again?  You  transform  the  fluid  into  gas,  have  you 
not  again  expelled  force  by  force?  You  weigh  the  solid, 
then  the  powder,  the  fluid  and  the  gas,  have  you  not  pre- 
cisely the  same  weight  in  all  instances?  Here  is  evident- 
ly force  expelled  without  loss  of  matter;  therefore  force 
must  be  immaterial  and  separable  from  matter.  It  is  not 
a  mere  function  of  matter,  and  not  being  function,  it  must 
be  substance.  If  you  perform  the  chemical  process,  down- 
ward from  gas  to  a  lump  of  coal,  you  arrive  at  the  same 
results  precisely  by  conducting  force  into  matter,  and  you 
are  entitled  to  the  same  conclusions. 

Take  another  view  of  the  matter.  Take  for  instance 
Gay-Lussac's  discovery,  made  in  1808,  that  different  gases 
under  equal  pressure  and  temperature,  are  united  to  one 
body  according  to  the  simple  volume  proportion,  so  that 
the  volume  of  the  compound  stands  in  simple  proportion 
to  the  volume  of  its  ingredients.  Here  you  make  one 
body  of  two  or  more,  not  by  molecular  force,  without  any 
change  of  weight.  Two  forces,  pressure  and  heat,  have 
been  conducted  into  the  matter,  and  changed  its  condi- 
tion,  yet  these  forces  were  evidently  not  in  that  matter 


DYNAMIC    ONTOLOGY.  89 

-which  you  changed,  and  being  in  now,  show  neither  ex- 
tension nor  weight.  They  must  be  immaterial  and  inde- 
pendent of  matter. 

Again,  we  can  see  the  independence  of  force  from  matter 
as  often  as  we  look  heavenward.  Where  the  atmosphere 
of  our  earth  ceases,  there  is  the  end  of  matter — there  be- 
gins space.  The  same  is  the  case  if  looked  on  from  every 
other  mundane  body.  Space  beyond  the  atmosphere  is 
not  filled  with  matter.  The  ancient  atomists  were  con- 
sistent enough  to  adopt  the  vacuum;  with  them  space  is 
a  vacuum.  If  all  motion  is  in  the  atoms,  then  each  must 
be  in  a  vacuum  in  which  to  move;  so  must  be  every  body 
composed  of  atoms.  The  moving  body  must  have  vacant 
space.  The  moving  body  cannot  occupy  the  same  space 
■occupied  by  other  bodies.  Our  knowledge  of  mechanics 
makes  the  case  still  worse.  If  the  earth,  or  any  other 
body,  would  meet  with  perpetual  resistance,  its  motion 
must  be  perpetually  retarded,  and  it  must  come  to  a  final 
suspension  of  motion,  not  in  billions  of  years,  as  the  usual 
calculation  runs,  but  in  a  very  few  myriads  of  years. 

If  so,  the  retardation  of  planetary  motion  must  have 
become  observable  somewhere;  which,  however,  is  not 
the  case.  All  theories  basing  upon  space  resistance  are 
illegitimate,  because  they  rest  upon  not  a  single  estab- 
lished fact.  On  the  contrary,  all  facts  known  of  plane- 
tary motion,  demonstrate  that  there  is  no  resistance  in 
space,  and  no  friction. 

In  modern  times,  some  atomists  advance  the  hypothe- 
sis that  every  atom  moves  in  a  sphere  of  force,  which  is 
-already  a  confession  that  force  is  immaterial  and  inde- 
pendent. But  then  comes  the  chief  difficulty.  Our  earth 
receives  light  and  heat  from  the  sun,  and  moves  by  the 
force  of  attraction  exercised  by  the  central  luminary. 
The  sun  exercises  the  same  influence  on  all  planetary 
bodies  as  far  distant  as  to  Neptune — 2,853,600,000  miles; 
and  probably  beyond  this.  Furthermore,  we  suppose  to 
know  that  a  mutual  attraction  of  the  planets  for  each 
other  exists,  as  we  do  know  that  every  planet  receives 
light  from  every  other  planet.  Hence  the  whole  space  of 
the  solar  system  is  continually  penetrated  by  the  forces 
of  light,  heat,  and  attraction  in  lines  crossing  each  other 
in  all  imaginary  angles.  If  all  fixed  stars  are  suns  and 
centers  of  solar  systems,  then  all  space  is  continually  un- 
der the  same  influences.  If  our  solar  system  is  not  an 
independent  section  of  the  universe,  then  either  all  suns 
must  exercise  mutual  attraction,  or  move  around  a  cen- 


90  THE   COSMIC   GOD 

tral  sun;  in  either  case  all  space  is  filled  with  these  for- 
ces crossing  each  other  in  all  possible  angles. 

Here  is  the  great  difficulty  of  atomism.  Forces  being 
evidently  at  work  in  the  immense  space,  it  is  no  vacuum. 
If  force  is  a  function  of  matter,  all  space  must  be  filled 
with  matter,  call  it  ether  or  zero.  All  matter  consisting 
of  atoms,  space  is  an  infinite  continuation  of  atoms.  But 
there  rise  a  number  of  questions,  first  in  regard  to  mo- 
tion; how  can  the  earth  or  any  other  body  pass  through 
the  space  filled  with  atoms?  If  we  say  the  solid  body  by 
its  superior  resistance  and  velocity  dislodges  the  atoms- 
from  the  space  it  passes,  to  which  they  always  retura 
after  it  is  vacated;  then  the  space  atoms  must  be  highly 
elastic,  capable  of  being  compressed,  and  communicating 
the  pressure  from  atom  to  atom.  Where  is  that  pressure 
to  stop,  and  what  can  stop  it?  Each  atom  in  this  case  be- 
ing agitated  by  two  forces,  its  own  and  the  impulse  given 
it  by  the  moving  body,  and  each  atom  behind  it  by  only 
one  force.  Where  is  the  resistance  in  space  to  stop  that 
motion  of  motion?  If  stopping  somewhere  anyhow  by 
means  unknown,  then  the  pressure  and  temperature  of 
the  moving  body,  according  to  Gay-Lussac's  experiment, 
acting  on  the  atoms  must  unite  them,  and  united  they 
must  be  attracted  by  the  earth;  then  the  body  of  the 
earth  must  grow  continually,  which  we  know  to  be  not 
the  case. 

Again  a  body  is  elastic,  if  its  particles  can  be  compress- 
ed, i.  e.  they  can  change  place  and  occupy  the  space  of 
their  pores.  Hence  elastic  atoms  must  be  such  whose 
parts  can  change  place.  Therefore  every  space  atom 
must  consist  of  parts  and  be  no  atom.  You  may  divide  each 
atom  as  much  as  you  please;  you  have  the  same  question 
at  the  smallest  thinkable  atom;  you  arrive  precisely  at 
the  same  absurdity.  Therefore  there  can  be  no  space 
atoms;  but  there  is  force  in  space,  hence  force  is  inde- 
pendent and  immaterial. 

Next  comes  the  question  of  conductors  of  force  in  the 
space.  On  what  pinions  do  these  forces  travel?  If  we 
imagine  light,  heat  and  attraction  issuing  from  the  sun 
as  forces,  the  corpuscular  theory  having  become  impossi- 
ble, they  must  strike  every  atom  around  that  luminary, 
then  every  atom  so  moved  communicates  this  motion  to 
the  adjoining  layer  of  atoms,  and  so  on,  as  the  ring  of 
waves  enlarge,  down  through  the  entire  solar  system  to 
Neptune,  until  this  motion  is  received  and  reflected  or 
revibrated  by  the  various  solid  bodies.     If  so,  every  atom. 


DYNAMIC    ONTOLOGY.  91 

in  the  solar  system  outside  the  bodies  must  be  perpetually 
and  incessantly  engaged  in  receiving  andcommunicating^ 
these  motions,  as  those  forces  work  on  without  the  slight- 
est intermission  and  work  upon  every  point_,in  the  space. 
In  this  case,  it  might  be  intelligible,  how  light,  heat,  and 
attraction  reach  the  earth  from  the  sun;  but  there  is  not 
the  slightest  room  left  for  the  light  and  attraction  which 
the  planetary  bodies  send  to  each  other.  All  space  atoms 
being  continually  engaged  by  the  energy  passing  from 
the  sun,  no  medium  whatever  is  left,  to  conduct  force  from 
planet  to  planet,  much  less  from  solar  system  to  solar 
system,  and  nobody  can  tell  how  we  can  see  the  stars  or 
recognize  the  attractive  influence  of  the  planets.  But 
we  do  see  the  stars,  light,  heat  and  attraction  work  alike 
all  over  the  universe,  hence  the  theory  of  space  atoms  falls 
dead  to  the  ground. 

Next  in  order  comes  the  theory  of  Mr.  Rankin,  in 
which  I  can  see  a  mere  subterfuge,  although  very  poeti- 
cal. The  atoms  are  not  supposed  to  be  displaced,  but 
revolve  around  their  cylindrical  axes,  as  the  waves  of 
light  or  other  forces  pass  them. 

This  does  not  remove  the  difficulties  just  discussed,  and 
brings  in  also  the  question  of  elasticity.  There  must 
evidently  be  vacant  space  between  those  revolving  atoms, 
or  else  they  could  not  revolve;  or,  as  the  sun  force  strikes 
them,  they  must  be  compressed  to  pass  the  force.  The 
first  case  is  impossible,  because  there  can  be  no  vacuum, 
and  the  second  is  impossible  on  account  of  the  nature  of 
elasticity.  Besides,  what  is  that  sun  force  which  passes 
the  revolving  atoms?  If  it  also  consists  of  atoms,  then 
atom  dislodges  atom  continually  in  all  space,  it  is  all 
wheel  within  wheel  in  perpetual  motion  ;  and  the  first 
question  recurs;  for  there  is  evidently  no  room  left  for 
any  other  force  function  in  all  space.  If  it  is  dynamic 
force  which  rolls  over  the  revolving  atoms,  well  then, 
there  is  force  independent  and  immaterial,  and  we  have 
no  use  for  revolving  atoms,  or  any  other  space-atoms,  as 
independent  and  immaterial  force  is  its  own  conductor. 

Atomism,  from  whatever  standpoint  you  examine  it,  is 
impossible.  But  it  is  certain  that,  whatever  we  know  or 
can  know  of  this  physical  world,  whatever  science  knows 
or  can  know  thereof,  is  the  manifestation  of  force.  There- 
fore we  must  stop  at  dynamic  ontology,  and  say,  we  know 
of  this  physical  world  that  which  manifesting  forces  re- 
veal to  our  senses  and  cognition.  This  must  be  the  basis 
of  all  science  and  of  all  philosophy.  Force  is  immaterial 
and  independent.  It  is  omnipresent  and  almighty,  in  this^ 
physical  world.  It  is  bound  to  no  time,  and  no  space  where 


92  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

there  is  no  material  obstacle,  and  governs  all  material 
things.  The  laws  of  nature  are  the  laws  of  force  working 
upon  matter. 

Here  is  the  grave  of  all  materialism  as  a  philosophy; 
and  here  begins  philosophy  proper.  Force  immaterial 
and  independent  of  matter,  the  existence  of  which  no 
rational  observer  can  justly  doubt,  although  it  is  neither 
bulk,  body,  or  mass,  and  perceptible  in  its  manifestations 
only,  is  the  central  point  of  all  philosophy.  It  is  Spino- 
za's substance,  Kant's  intelligible  world,  Hegle's  absolute 
idea;  Schopenhauer's  will,  andHartman's  Unbewusstes. 
Each  of  them  has  viewed  this  central  thought  from  another 
standpoint.  There  is  truth  and  error  in  each  and  all  of 
them.  Let  us  see  what  we  can  adopt  and  what  we  must 
correct.  "We  have  now  gained  two  important  points, 
mind  and  force.  Let  us  now  investigate  whether  there 
is  mind  in  force,  or  in  other  words,  whether  this  omni- 
present and  almighty  force  is  intelligent,  whether  it  is 
physical,  psychical,  unconscious  or  conscious,  whether  it 
is  mechanical  or  has  a  will,  or  to  be  short,  whether  it  is 
infinite  madness  or  infinite  Deity.  This  will  be  the  sub- 
ject of  my  next  lectures f 


BIOLOGY. 


93 


LECTURE  XII. 


BIOLOQY. 


*  What  is  life?  This  is  a  sorrowful  question  with  many 
who  either  feel  its  heavy  burden,  or  are  doomed  to  testify 
to  its  uncertainty,  when  friends  are  laid  low,  and  leave  a 
painful  vacuum  in  the  aching  heart.  But  this  is  not  the 
question  I  feel  to-day  able  to  discuss.  I  do  not  wish  to 
impose  tears  on  you.  What  is  life,  is  also  in  science  a 
very  important  question.  It  is  a  special  science  called 
Biology,  from  the  Greek  bios  "life,"  and  logos  "discourse" 
or  "treatise,"  the  science  which  treats  of  the  force  or 
forces  of  life  in  general,  as  manifested  in  the  vegetable 
and  animal  kingdoms.  Any  conception  of  ontology 
without  a  settled  principle  of  biology  is  necessarily  im- 
perfect; especially  as  this  earth  appears  to  be  the  mere 
pedestal  upon  which  the  living  beings  rest  or  move;  forces 
and  elements  apparently  have  but  one  aim,  viz.:  to  pro- 
duce and  sustain  life. 

My  definition  of  life  is  this:  Life  is  the  differentiation 
of  vital  force  which  produces  and  develops  individual  or- 
ganism and  preserves  its  identity.  I  say  this  is  my  defi- 
nition, for  the  definitions  of  English  scientists  and  philo- 
sophers are  bewildering  and  mostly  illogical;  because  they 
are  based  upon  mechanical  atomism,  which  denies  the 
existence  of  vital  force.  Buechner  advanced  the  formula 
which  most  all  of  them  repeat  in  different  words.  He 
says,  "Thought,  spirit,  soul,  are  nothing  material,  not 
themselves  body;  they  are  the  complex  of  homogenous 
forces  grown  together  to  a  unity."  He  adds  then,  "At 
least  we  would  not  know,  how  to  define  spirit  or  force 
except  as  something  immaterial,  something  which  excludes 
matter  and  is  its  opposite."  This  is  the  oracle  of  the 
English  scientists  and  also  of  Mr.  Spencer.    Life  being  a» 


S4  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

complex  of  homogenous  forces  grown  together  to  a  unity, 
of  course,  there  is  no  vital  force. 

Philosophically,  this  is  impossible,  for  things  immate- 
rial can  not  grow  together  and  form  a  unity,  as  growing 
together  means  the  connection  of  all  points  in  two  sur- 
faces. Souls,  spirits,  thoughts  cannot  possible  grow  to- 
gether. Physically,  the  theory  is  overthi'own  •  by  the 
constancy  of  each  force  in  the  parallelogram  of  forces. 
If  life  was  a  complex  of  forces,  each  of  them  must  be 
traceable  in  the  process.  But  life  is  not  sound,  heat,  at- 
traction, or  electricity;  none  of  which  is  discoverable  in 
the  principle  which  maintains  the  identity  of  the  individ- 
ual, notwithstanding  all  other  natural  forces  working 
against  it  and  effecting  its  dissolution  as  soon  a  life  de- 
parts. 

Evidently  we  have  before  us  in  every  living  organism 
a  force  which  governs  the  others  for  this  specific  purpose. 
Every  constant  relation  of  elements  or  bodies  to  one  an- 
other, points  to  an  overruling  force  in  action  for  this  spe- 
cific purpose.  In  the  organic  kingdoms,  the  immense  va- 
riety of  elementary  relations  to  form  and  sustain  here  a 
tree,  there  a  shrub,  here  an  herb  and  there  a  blade  of 
grass,  here  a  mollusk,  there  a  radiate  or  articulate,  here 
a  reptile,  fish,  bird,  or  mammal,  and  there  a  man,  all 
made  up  of  the  same  elements,  governed  by  the  same  for- 
ces, necessitates  us  to  adopt  an  overruling  force  which 
subjects  matter  and  force,  in  order  to  assume  this  shape 
and  no  other,  to  be  so  large  at  its  birth  and  grow  so  far 
and.no  farther,  have  this  form,  surface  and  color  and  no 
other,  develop  and  live  so  long  and  no  longer.  All  these 
limitations  and  modifications  point  to  a  special  force  at 
work  which  we  call  vital  force. 

This  vital  force  bears  no  similiarity  to  the  other  natur- 
al forces,  to  electricity,  light,  heat,  sound,  or  mechanical 
motion.  The  most  wonderful  effect  produced  by  physi- 
cal forces  is  in  the  crystal.  Yet  Du-Bois-Eeymond  who 
considers  life  "a  very  difficult  mechanical  problem,"  ad- 
raits  in  the  same  passage,  that  crystal  and  organism  differ 
from  one  another  like  the  mere  walls  of  a  factory  and  the 
artistical  machineries  which  give  it  name  and  character. 
The  most  brilliant  diamond  has  no  more  in  common  with 
the  lowest  organism  than  a  flake  of  snow  with  the  hy- 
draulic elevators  in  your  stores  or  hotels.  In  the  lowest 
organism  is  life,  motion,  assimulation  and  secretion,  none 
of  which  is  in  the  most  beautiful  crystal.  The  crystal 
forms  of  the  minerals  are  mathematically  fixed,  so  that 
VQ  the  detail,  the  relations  of  angles  and  planes  to  the 
crystalographic  axis  is  unchanged.     But  the  organic  form 


BIOLOGY.  95 

can  not  be  mathematically  fixed.  It  is  free  in  every  in- 
dividual. Starting  from  the  round  cell,  its  outlines  as- 
sume the  most  wonderful  variety.  There  is  no  necessity 
in  the  relation  ot  angles  and  planes  to  the  axis.  Every 
plant  and  every  animal  develops  its  arch  type  with  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  freedom  and  variability,  which  must  be 
the  effect  of  a  cause  not  at  work  in  the  inorganic  world, 
for  which  we  have  no  better  name  than  vital  force. 

The  mechanical  atomists,  must  banish  life  from  the 
universe,  in  order  to  have  a  dead  mechanism.  But  here 
it  is  in  the  organic  kingdoms;  how  can  it  appear  here,  if 
it  is  not  there?  How  can  an  effect  be  produced  without  a 
cause?  They  treat  this  question  as  that  professor  did  his 
visitor  whose  queries  he  could  not  answer;  he  sat  the  man 
out  doors,  and  all  problems  were  solved.  "We  have  no 
dogma  to  defend  and  may  treat  the  question  with  a  little 
more  courtesy. 

Like  the  general  survey,  so  the  investigation  into  the 
particulars  of  this  phenomenon  will  lead  us  to  the  exist- 
ence of  vital  force.  Helmholz  is  honest  enough  to  atop 
short  at  the  very  sensible  theory:  "Either  organic  life 
has  commenced  sometime  to  exist,  or  it  has  existed  from 
eternity."  This  is  a  plain  admission  of  ignorance  as  to 
the  origin  of  life. 

On  onr  planet,  this  is  certain,  life  had  a  beginning. — 
The  geologist  has  examined  into  the  crust  of  this  earth 
and  traced  life  from  its  most  simple  start,  both  in  num- 
ber and  form,  in  structure  and  size,  to  the  Flora  and 
Fauna  of  this  day,  with  man  at  the  head  of  25, 000  genera 
of  vertebrates.  The  earth  is  supposed  to  consist  of  a  cen- 
tral and  perpetual  fire  encased  in  a  molten  metallic  mass 
of  primitive  and  unstratified  rock,  with  a  solid  nucleus 
for  its  center.  Around  this  mother  rock  the  crust  of  the 
earth  has  been  formed  in  successive  ages  of  convulsions 
jind  revolutions.  The  crust  next  to  the  mother  rock, 
called  the  Archean  age,  shows  no  remains  of  organic  life. 
The  next  crust  called  the  Silurian  age  contains  organic 
rocks,  in  which  the  lowest  forms  of  organic  life,  small  in 
number  and  simple  in  construction,  are^  imbedded.  There 
are  the  algae  representing  the  vegetable  kingdom,  some 
radiates,  moUusks  and  articulates,  representing  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  which  must  have  lived  in  water  much  more 
salted  and  thicker  than  our  sea  water.  One  step  higher, 
there  is  the  crust  or  stratum  called  the  Devonian  age, 
in  which  fishes  and  two  higher  types  of  marine  vegeta- 
bles make  their  appearance.     Again  one  step  higher,  and 


96  THE  COSMIC  aoD 

we  arrive 'at  the  Carboniferous  age,  in  "which  reptile* 
have  left  their  remains,  and  they  increase  upward  to  the 
next  or  Secondary  age.  Above  this,  we  arrive  at  the 
stratum  called  the  Terrtiary  age,  and  there  for  the  first 
time  we  meet  mammals,  dicotyls  and  palms.  There  is 
the  beginning  of  the  large  animals  and  trees  of  our  earth's 
surface,  upon  which  at  last  man  appears,  creation's  last 
and  most  wonderful  work.  The  law  of  progression  is 
well  recorded  in  the  rocks,  so  that  we  can  trace  back  the 
history  of  organic  life  to  its  unquestionable  beginning  on 
this  globe,  and  read  its  progressions  from  stage  to  stage 
up  to  man  and  his  surroundings. 

The  first  and  lowest  animal  or  plant  which  made  its 
appearance  on  this  globe  was  made  up  of  organic  matter 
which,  in  its  morphotic  structure  and  inherent  force  is  en- 
tirly  different  from  inorganic  matter.  All  organic  beings, 
from  the  lowest  sea  weed  to  man,  are  composed  of' 
cells,  some  of  which  are  so  minute  that  they  can  be  ex- 
amined only  under  the  most  powerful  magnifier.  Still  the 
smallest  as  the  largest  cell  is  a  thing  of  its  own  in  mor- 
photic structure  and  inherent  force.  Of  some  of  the  cells, 
though  by  no  means  of  all,  we  know  the  form,  structure,, 
chemical  ingredients  and  their  proportions;  but  the  force 
which  unites  those  ingredients  in  those  proportions  to  an 
organic  cell  of  that  particular  nature  is  a  profound  mys- 
tery. 

These  cells  of  which  all  animate  beings  are  made,  which 
form  the  starting  point  of  every  organism,  and  make  up 
all  its  tissues  and  organs,  bones,  blood,  muscles  or  nerves, 
root,  stem,  bark,  or  fruit,  are  little  bags,  as  may  be  best 
observed  in  the  cells  of  the  common  elder  pith  or  the 
coarse  cells  of  the  orange.  The  envelop,  called  the  cell- 
wall  or  membrance,  contains  a  fluid  or  gelatinous  matter 
and  some  round  particles  or  granules,  in  which  the  cen- 
ter of  the  cell  is  formed.  These  cells  are  of  different 
shapes  and  chemical  composition,  not  only  in  different 
individuals,  but  also  in  the  different  parts  of  the  same 
body.  The  long  thread-like  cells  which  give  the  fibrous 
character  to  the  flesh,  do  not  differ  originally  from  the 
cells  which  build  up  the  brain,  blood  and  bone,  glands, 
nerves,  and  arteries.  So  throughout  the  whole  living  or- 
ganism, the  cells  constituting  different  tissues  have  their 
peculiarities  for  each,  and  yet  originally  all  the  cells  are 
alike.  Without  any  scien'ific  investigation  taste  informs 
us,  that  the  various  vegetables  and  the  parts  of  different 
animals  whose  flesh  we  eat,  are  conaposed  of  different 


BIOLOGT.  97 

cells,  in  regard  to  chemical  constituents,  and  yet  the  mi- 
croscope shows  but  one  and  the  same  kind  of  cells.  Na- 
ture constructs  the  grape,  the  orange,  the  chicken,  the 
pigeon,  of  cells,  made  for  this  verj  purpose;  so  the  brain^ 
blood,  bone,  muscle,  lung,  etc.,  are  composed  of  cells  fit 
only  for  this  and  no  other  purpose. 

The  construction  of  these  tens  of  thousands  of  chemic- 
ally different  cells,  made  of  the  same  elements,  to  make 
up  the  various  kinds  of  vegetable  and  animal  organism, 
.  and  in  each  organism  the  different  parts,  and  the  parts 
of  parts,  fitted  together  by  the  blastema  or  matrix  in  the 
animal,  is  the  fundamental  mystery  of  organic  life,  for 
which  none  of  the  known  forces  of  nature  give  us  the 
least  account.  And  yet  these  cells  grow,  fill  up,  divide, 
live,  change  perpetually  their  constituents  in  the  organic 
body  only,  and  are  transformed  into  inorganic  matter  a& 
soon  as  life  is  defunct.  So  we  have  before  us  unquest- 
ionably a  series  of  phenomena  most  wonderful  and  intri- 
cate, entirely  different  in  kind  from  all  others  known  to 
science,  and  peculiar  to  themselves  only;  phenomena 
which  point  forcibly  to  a  different  agent,  for  which  we 
have  but  one  name,  and  this  is  vital  force. 

Please,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  not  to  forget  the  thread 
of  my  humble  argument.  Organic  life  is  a  phenomenon  en- 
tirely different  from  all  others.  It  is  not  the  complex  of 
the  known  forces  of  light,  heat,  sound,  electricity,  attract- 
ion or  mechanical  motion,  much  less  of  the  atomic  for- 
ces. Where  then  is  the  definition  of  life  by  our  English 
cotemporaries,  Mr.  Spencer's  included?  Evidently  no- 
where. Life  had  a  beginning  on  this  globe,  and  all  our 
knowledge  testifies  that  it  could  appear  in  organic  matter 
only,  in  the  cell  or  cells.  The  cell  either  made  itself, 
which  no  naturalist  will  admit,  or  there  must  be  vital 
force.  Therefore  the  atomists  hard  pressed  with  the  per- 
tinent question,  how  did  the  cell  come  into  existence?  re- 
sort to  various  dodges  and  subterfuges.  The  first  is  the 
generatio  equivoca^  which  means  the  production  of  cells  or 
organic  beings  from  inorganic  matter  in  an  unknown 
manner.  In  my  opinion  the  argument  amounts  to  noth- 
ing. It  pushes  the  question  back  a  little  way  without 
changing  it.  The  question  would  still  be,  by  which  force 
is  inorganic  matter  transformed  into  organic,  the  inani- 
mate into  animate?  and  the  answer  would  be  again  vital 
force.  Mr.  Schwan,  the  father  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
cells,  denies  the  possibility  of  generatio  equivoca.  In  France 
a  long  and  bitter  controversy  was  carried  on  on  this  very 
subject,  with  Mr.  Pasteur  and  the  academy  on  one  side^ 
7 


98  THE   COSMIC   GOD 

Pouchet,  Joly,  and  Mussett  on  the  other,  withont  any  re- 
sult contrary  to  Sehwan's  assertion.  In  Germany,  it  was 
Carl  Vogt  who  maintained  the  generatio  equivoco,  but 
without  any  support  from  the  numerous  and  shrewd  ex- 
periments to  this  end,  by  prominent  scientists.  At  last 
it  was  finally  demonstrated  in  Pfluegner's  laboratory, 
that  water  boiled  a  certain  length  of  time  was  incapable 
of  breeding  infusoria,  because  the  germs  were  destroj'ed  by 
heat,  showing  conclusively  the  fallacy  of  generotio  equiv- 
oca.  The  last  of  great  scientists,  in  our  country,  Prof. . 
Agassiz,  has  shown  in  one  of  his  last  lectures  "All  life 
from  the  egg;"  hence  this  dodge  is  dead. 

Next  in  order  come  the  monads,  the  most  simple  of  mi- 
croscopic organism,  mere  points  of  living  beings,  now 
considered  vegetable  spores  or  germs.  Mr.  Haeckel  re- 
fers to  a  little  marine  creature,  described  by  Mr.  Huxley 
and  named  Bathyhius  Saeckelii,  mere  little  slime  bags  sup- 
posed to  live  in  the  ocean  at  a  depth  of  12,000  to  24,000 
feet,  as  the  beginning  of  organisms.  The  question  is, 
whether  those  monads,  Bathybii  and  the  like  creatures, 
are  not  organic  remains  of  larger  beings  which  died  and 
dissolved  in  the  salt  water.  It  appears  they  are.  But  if 
they  are  not,  it  has  no  bearing  on  the  main  question. — 
Whether  any  morphotic  structure  by  a  monad,  Bathybius, 
protoplasm,  spore,  germ,  red  snow,  gory  dew,  elephant, 
or  man,  it  is  under  all  circumstances  something  differ- 
ent from  inorganic  matter;  it  lives  and  the  question  al- 
ways is  the  same,  by  what  force?  On  the  contrary,  those 
miniature  beings  without  any  discoverable  organism  go 
far  to  prove,  that  life  is  no  mechanical  problem;  it  de- 
pends on  no  mechanism;  life  is  prior  to  the  mechanism  in 
which  it  manifests  itself. 

Therefore  Mr.  Haeckel  himself  is  not  satisfied  with  his 
Bathybian  proof,  and  advances  this:  "If  you  do  not  adopt 
the  hypothesis  of  generatio  eguivoca  (Urzeugung),  then  at 
this  simple  point  of  natural  evolution  you  must  have  re- 
sort to  the  miracle  of  supernatural  creation."  You  see 
Mr.  Haeckel  is  honest,  and  says  the  hypothesis  of  genera- 
tio equivoco  is  merely  an  inductive  necessity,  as  a  maxim 
of  natural  research,  but  it  is  no  fact.  Yes,  yes,  Mr. 
Haeckel,  I  would  add,  this  is  so;  without  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  vital  force  as  a  force  of  nature,  organic  life  is  a 
miracle. 

Mr.  Wm.  Thomson  went  beyond  Haeckel  and  advanced 
another  dodge.  He  admits  that  organic  matter  could  not 
at  any  time  originate  from  inorganic  matter,  and  suggests 
the  first  organic  germs  may  have  reached  this  earth  up- 


BIOLOGY.  99 

■on  meteors  or  aerolites,  falling  down  upon  it,  after  having 
traveled  through  space  filled  with  organic  germs;  or  those 
meteors  may  be  fragments  of  a  destroyed  earth,  upon 
which  such  life  existed. 

There  are,  however,  too  many  objections  to  this  hy- 
pothesis. The  crust  of  the  earth  shows  distinctly  that 
life  had  a  beginning  on  this  planet;  hence  there  is  not 
the  least  ground  to  maintain,  it  had  no  beginning  on  other 
planets.  If  a  beginning  it  had  here,  there,  or  anywhere, 
the  question  remains  precisely  the  same,  by  what  force? 
Besides  the  aerolites  which  have  fallen  on  this  earth  are 
composed  of  some  twenty  well-known  elements,  mostly 
iron,  all  contained  in  this  earth.  No  new  element  was 
discovered  in  them,  and  but  one-third  of  those  which 
compose  our  earth.  There  is  no  cause  whatever  to  sup- 
pose that  life  came  with  those  aerolites,  which  contain  no 
other  new  element;  or  that  life  originated  on  an  earth  of 
twenty  elements  prior  to  one  of  sixty.  Again,  all  meteo- 
ric stones  by  the  velocity  of  their  fall,  if  by  nothing  else, 
are  encased  in  a  molten  crust,  like  a  coat  of  varnish,  and 
come  in  a  strongly  heated  state;  so  that,  if  there  ever  had 
been  any  living  germs  on  any,  according  to  Pfluegner's 
experiment,  it  must  have  been  destroyed  long  before  it 
could  have  reached  our  earth. 

No  less  unfortunate  than  Thomson's  is  Mr.  Fechner's 
hypothesis.  He  thinks  organic  matter  is  its  first  and  or- 
iginal form,  from  which  inorganic  matter  was  prepared, 
by  fire  we  suppose,  or  as  coral  reefs  are  built  up.  Good, 
Mr.  Fechner,  I  would  say,  the  hypothesis  is  genial  and 
novel;  but  we  are  afraid  it  proves  too  much  in  our  favor. 

If  all  matter  was  originally  alive,  then  vital  force  was 
prior  to  all  other  natural  forces,  and  our  definition  of  life 
becomes  self-evident.  First  all  atoms  were  alive,  hence 
all  were  controlled  by  vital  force;  then  the  atoms  died, 
fire  changed  them  into  the  inorganic  body,  then  and  there 
the  other  forces  made  their  appearance,  probably  as  mere 
reflexes  of  the  vital  force.  The  only  difficulty  with  Mr. 
Fechner's  hypothesis  is,  no  means  are  left  to  prove  it. 

All  other  dodges  of  this  kind,  feeling  matter,  world's 
ether,  the  fall  of  gelatinous  matter,  having  been  declared 
mythical,  we  have  arrived  again  at  the  beginning,  what 
is  life?  We  could  close  here,  and  insist  on  our  definition, 
without  fear  of  refutation  from  any  scientist,  as  all  the 
other  hypothesis  and  theories  prove  a  failure.  But  the 
matter  is  much  too  important  to  have  it  rest  on  a  mere 
hypotheses.  Let  us  seek  all  the  truth  we  can  ascertain 
on  this  important  point,  to  gain  an  established  principle 


100  THE  OOSMIC  GOD. 

of  biology.  Therefore,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  invite  you 
to  my  next  lecture,  when  I  hope  to  continue  the  discuss- 
ion on  the  subject  of  biology. 


BIOLOOT.  101 


LECTURE    XIIL 


BIOLOGY. — PART  Jl. 


Permit  me,  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  open  this  second 
lecture  on  biology  with  a  passage  from  Shopenhaur.  He 
says  (Willen  in  der  Natur,  p.  59)  "It  certainly  follows 
from  my  system,  that  every  being  is  its  own  work.  Na- 
ture which  never  lies  and  is  naive  like  genius,  testifies  to 
the  same,  how  every  being  merely  takes  the  spark  of  life 
from  another  precisely  of  its  own  kind,  and  then  grows 
up  before  our  eyes.  It  takes  the  material  from  abroad, 
form  and  motion  from  itself,  which  are  called  growth  and 
development.  So  also  empirically,  every  being  stands 
before  us  as  its  own  work.  But  the  language  of  nature 
is  not  understood,  because  it  is  too  simple." 

Numerous  are  the  objections,  which  have  been  raised 
against  this  passage,  and  yet  it  is  correct.  It  says  in  a 
metaphorical  sense  only :  that  every  living  being  stands 
before  us  j.8  its  own  work.  This  means,  that  the  causes 
of  its  existence,  growth,  and  identity  are  in  each  organ- 
ism itself.^ Every  real  phenomenan  must  be  explained 
by  its  inhorent  principle.  It  is  unscientific  to  derive  for 
instance,  tne  nature  and  character  of  a  man  before  us 
from  the  antedeluvian  radiate,  or  from  his  supposed  ape- 
like ancestor.  As  sure  as  we  now  speak  and  act  as  men 
and  not  as  monkeys,  so  sure  all  our  actions  and  reactions 
rise  every  time  from  our  own  constituting  principle. 

The  same  precisely  is  the  case  with  every  organic  be- 
ing. Life  appears  new  and  peculiarly  individualized  in 
every  organic  being.  The  germ  only  is  from  the  parent- 
al stock,  and  consists  of  a  cell  or  cells  containing  in  min- 
iature the  characteristics  of  the  parental  organism  and 
the  ability  of  being  unfolded  to  a  free  being,  by  the  dif- 
ferentiated vital  force.     In  consequence  of  the  germ,  every 


102  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

new  organism  must  run  through  the  same  cycle  of  changes 
of  form  as  its  parents;  and  in  consequence  of  the  differ- 
entiated vital  force,  new  characteristics  appear  in  every 
new  individual  in  a  manner  of  apparent  ireedom  and  in- 
dependence; so  that  no  two  organic  beings  are  jjerfectly 
identical. 

In  objection  to  this  theory  it  might  be  advanced,  if  vi- 
tality is  a  force,  then  like  force  in  general  it  must  be  one 
and  universal;  if  so  its  phenomena  must  appear  every- 
where with  mathematical  precision  the  same.  To  this,  I 
have  to  say,  vital  force  is  universal  and  does  manifest  it- 
self in  identical  forms  everywhere,  although  not  with 
mathematical  precision;  but  it  is  also  individualized,  and, 
in  this  form  it  appears  with  freedom,  because  it  is  life  and 
not  merely  mechanical  force  moving  inert  matter.  Let 
TIB  understand  these  points. 

That  vital  force  is  one  and  universal  is  evident  by  the 
identity  of  characteristic  manifestations  in  all  organic  be- 
ings. All  consist  of  cells  and  the  various  arrangements 
of  same  ;  hence  the  groundwork  of  life  is  the  same  in  all 
forms,  in  as  far  as  the  morph^ic  structure  of  the  cells 
is  the  same  in  all  organisms,  and  different  from 
crystals  in  three  particular  points:  1,  The  cell  never  pi*o- 
duces  geometrical  solids,  it  maintains  universally  the 
globular  form;  %^  It  does  not  combine  homogenous  ele- 
ments, but  chemically  different  substances;  9«  The  cell  is 
limited  in  size,  while  the  crystal  is  not. 

Again,  in  all  cases  the  young  plant  or  animal  begins 
its  life  in  a  small  germ,  runs  through  the  three  states  of 
embryo,  development  and  maturity,  and  ends  in  death, 
i.  e.  the  vital  force  leaving  the  organic  structure,  it  can  of- 
fer resistance  no  longer  to  the  other  forces  which  decom- 
pose and  dissolve  it. 

Furthermore,  all  organic  beings  live  by  the  same  in- 
ternal functions  of  absorption,  assimilation,  secretion  and 
excretion.  Whether  the  tree  absorbs  inorganic  matter 
from  earth  and  atmosphere  by  its  roots  and  leaves,  to 
prepare  its  own  kind  of  sap,  on  which  it  subsists,  lives, 
and  grows;  or  the  animal  consumes  organic  food  passing 
through  a  chemical  process  in  the  intestines,  to  prepare 
the  new  blood  necessary  for  the  nutrition  of  that  particu- 
lar animal,  it  is  always  the  same  process  of  absorption 
and  assimilation  on  the  part  of  the  cells  which  constitute 
that  particular  body.  Whether  the  tree  exhales  the  su- 
perfluous oxygen  or  the  animal  the  superfluous  carbon, 
and  excretes  the  combusted  material  in  any  form,  it  is  iu 


BIOLOGY,  103t 

all  cases  precisely  the  same  process  of  secretion  and  ex- 
cretion. 

And  lastly  I  will  mention  the  universality  of  the  sexu- 
al instinct  for  the  preservation  of  the  race,  which  mani- 
fests itself  with  striking  similarity  and  equal  force  in  all 
classes  of  organic  beings. 

Here  are  four  great  characteristics  of  life,  which  have 
nothing  in  common  with  inorganic  matter  and  its  forces, 
and  are  invariably  the  same  from  the  lowest  plant  up 
through  the  whole  series  to  man.  The  elementary  struc- 
ture, development,  mode  of  subsistence,  and  propogation 
of  the  race  are  universally  identical.  The  sameness  of 
phenomena  in  all  cases  points  directly  and  distinctly  to 
one  and  the  same  cause.  Although  the  individuals  in 
which  these  phenomena  appear  are  multitudinous,  still 
the  vital  force  must  be  one  and  universal. 

But  we  see  organic  individuals  only,  each  of  which 
stands  before  us  as  its  own  work,  manifesting  a  certain 
degree  of  freedom  and  independence  in  its  morphotic  pe- 
culiarities. We  can  not  deny  their  individual  existence, 
as  little  as  we  can  doubt  their  dependence  on  the  sub- 
stance. Whatever  philosophers  may  have  advanced  on 
the  problem  of  individuation,  its  possibility  or  impossi- 
bility; it  disappears  before  the  universal  fact,  that  the  or- 
ganic kingdoms  exist  of  individuals  only,  each  of  which 
is,  and  moves  around  its  own  center.  Besides,  there  are 
the  following  especial  points,  which  necessitate  us  to  rec- 
ognize individual  existence  in  the  organic  kingdoms. 

Every  organic  being  sustains  itself  by  the  labor  of  its 
own  organism,  which  changes  foreign  matter  into  this 
particular  body.  Look  at  the  tree;  the  cells  of  its  roots 
absorb  water  and  metal  from  the  earth,  which  rise  through 
its  pores  to  all  extremities,  while  the  leaves  inhale  from 
the  atmosphere  the  carbon,  oxygen,  and  other  elements; 
all  of  which  are  chemically  changed  by  the  organs  of  the 
tree,  to  a  sap  peculiar  to  this  tree  and  necessary  to  its 
sustenance,  to  rise  and  fall  in  the  wooden  channels,  and  be 
changed  to  roots,  stem,  bark,  foliage,  buds,  blossoms,  and 
fruits  of  that  particular  kind,  and  no  other.  If  the  ab- 
sorbed material  undergoes  not  the  chemical  change  in  the 
tree,  it  kills  the  same.  But  changed  by  the  organism, 
it  produces  here  the  pear,  apple  or  plum  tree,  bud,  blos- 
som and  fruit,  there  the  vine,  grape,  and  its  sweet  juice, 
here  the  orange  and  there  the  apricot,  etc.,  all  by  the 
work  of  the  tree's  peculiar  organs.  Here  is  a  lily,  there 
a  rose,  here  a  violet  there  a  narcise,  so  entirely  different 
in  shape,  size,  odor  and  color,  all  under  the  influence  of 
the  same  light,  boat  and  electricity,  all  sustained  by  the 


104  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

sap  from  the  ground  and  the  gases  from  the  atmosphere. 
In  all  cases,  we  see  the  individuality  of  the  plant  with  its 
own  organs  at  work,  to  live  and  thrive. 

Look  at  any  animal,  or  rather  look  at  man,  and  you 
have  individuality  perpetually  manifested.  Here  you 
have  a  vast  number  of  various  cells  in  union  and  harmony 
to  form  the  human  organism.  Each  cell  or  set  of  cells 
differs  materially  from  all  others.  There  are  brain  cells, 
muscle  cells,  nerve  cells,  lung  cells,  blood  cells,  bone  cells, 
etc.,  each  of  different  chemical  proportions.  All  these 
cells  are  subject  to  continual  looses  by  secretion  and  ex- 
cretion, and  must  be  continually  supplied  by  the  blood, 
each  with  the  particular  chemical  ingredients  and  in  ex- 
act proportion,  as  required  by  its  nature.  The  body 
stands  in  perpetual  connection  with  the  outer  world.  The 
exchange  of  materials,  taking  in  and  paying  out,  goes  on 
without  intermission.  This  restless  process  of  breathing, 
feeding,  and  digestion,  to  prepare  fresh  blood,  to  roll  both 
fresh  and  old  in  a  perpetual  circle  to  every  part  of  the 
body  and  back  to  the  heart,  going  and  coming  continu- 
ally, changes  the  foreign  matter  of  our  food  and  inhala- 
tion, into  the  proper  chemical  material  to  feed  and  sustain 
every  cell  according  to  its  peculiar  wants,  and  to  carry 
off  the  combusted  particles,  to  be  purified  for  future  use 
or  to  be  excreted.  The  human  organism  prepares  human 
blood  from  the  same  material,  from  which  the  cat  makes 
cat  blood,  the  dog,  the  lion,  the  tiger  each  his  own  blood, 
simply  on  account  of  the  difference  in  the  organism.  The 
organism  itself,  without  any  interference  from  abroad, 
carries  on  this  perpetual  and  intricate  process,  by  which 
it  is,  grows  and  thrives,  so  that  the  perfect  individuality 
of  every  person  or  animal  is  demonstrated  by  its  self-sus- 
taining organism,  and  we  have  clearly  before  us,  every 
being  as  his  own  work. 

Individuality  is  manifested  next  in  the  will  and  the  mus- 
cular motion.  Every  individual  has  a  will  of  its  own,  and 
the  muscles  obey  the  will.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  under- 
stood that  vegetables  have  no  will;  there  is  will  every- 
where.    I  only  wish  to  refer  here  to  animal  will. 

Although  there  are  certainly  class  instincts  peculiar  to 
entire  races  of  animals;  still  there  is  so  much  variety  also 
in  these  class  instincts  "^hat  the  presence  of  will  can  hard- 
ly be  doubted;  and  instinct  itself  is  but  steady  will. — 
When  I  move  my  finger,  lift  up  my  hand,  walk,  look  on, 
listen,  or  whatever  change  I  effect,  will  is  manifested 
which  prompts  certain  muscles  to  the  performance  of 
mechanical  labor.  This  will  with  its  muscular  instru- 
ments is  in  the  individual  and  not  outside  thereof.     From. 


BIOLOGY.  105 

whatever  center  it  may  come,  from  an  unconscious  nerve 
•center,  or  a  conscioua  mind,  it  comes  from  the  center  of 
this  individual  and  no  other.  "Whether  center  or  mind  be 
affected  by  inner  feelings  or  outer  impulses,  the  will  and 
subsequent  motion  are  always  in  and  by  the  individual  it- 
self. Mr.  Darwin's  theories  of  natural  and  sexual  select- 
ions, if  there  is  any  truth  in  them,  fully  demonstrate  will 
and  individuality  in  every  man,  animal  and  plant.  The 
volitions  are  so  numerous  that  no  number  can  express 
them;  and  yet  each  proceeds  from  some  organism  and  not 
from  the  other,  and  establishes  its  individuality. 

Next  in  the  chain  of  individual  and  independent  mani- 
festations we  come  to  the  very  limit  of  all  natural  science, 
as  Du-Bois-Keymond  calls  it;  we  come  to  the  fact  of  con- 
sciousness. I  do  not  refer  here  to  the  wonderful  self- 
consciousness  of  the  reasoning  man;  I  merely  refer  to  the 
conciousness  of  the  lowest  or  highest  animals.  It  feels 
•cold  or  warm,  pain  or  pleasure,  sees  red  or  blue,  exten- 
sions or  forms,  heurs  sounds  and  distinguishes  them,  tastes 
sour  or  bitter,  smells  pleasant  or  offensive,  and  is  conscious 
that  it  feels,  sees,  hears,  tastes,  or  smells  so  and  not  oth- 
erwise, and  is  conscious  of  its  own  individuality.  All 
physical  forces  do  not  account  for  the  simplest  sensation 
much  less  for  the  consciousness  thereof,  and  least  of  all 
for  the  necessary  reflection,  I  am  conscious,  hence  I  am 
an  individual,  and  none  can  feel,  see,  hear,  tastes  or 
smell  for  me.  No  body  can  participate  in  my  pain  or 
pleasure;  he  can  only  sympathize  with  me,  if  he  has  ex- 
perienced similar  feelings  in  his  own  consciousness.  So 
we  know  a  priori  that  each  individual  is  a  thing  complete 
and  independent  in  itself. 

Last,  but  not  least  ia  this  review  of  facts,  we  come  to 
the  influence  of  emotions  on  each  particular  organism. — 
Gladness,  success,  happiness,  quicken  the  circulation  of 
the  blood,  accelerate  the  digestion  and  increase  the  pro- 
cess of  assimilation.  Sorrow,  fear,  disappointment,  anxi- 
ety, perished  hopes,  undermined  prospects,  discouraging 
aspects,  etc.,  exercise  a  detrimental  influence  upon  the  or- 
ganism, and  not  unfrequently  ruin  the  constitution.  A 
false  friend  deserts  me,  I  sit  and  mourn,  hate  to  eat  or 
drink,  the  blood  courses  slower  through  the  veins.  A  dear 
friend  dies,  grief  overcomes  me  and  culminates  in  a  deliri- 
ous fever.  I  love  hopelessly,  and  my  heart's  blood  is  con- 
sumed. I  am  wronged,  dishonored,  neglected,  deserted, 
forlorn,  I  feel  repentance,  remorse  or  shame;  and  it  un- 
dermines my  health  and  ruins  my  constitution.  Who 
will  describe  the  numerous  and  various  cases  of  persons, 


106  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

pining  away  in  painful  emotions,  or  being  enlivened  by 
gladness  or  happiness;  or  how  diiferently  these  various 
emotions  effect  different  persons  and  different  animals? 
None  can,  because,  tliere  is  freedom  and  independence  in 
every  organism.  It  all  depends  on  the  individual  and 
independent  of  all  persons  and  friends. 

Here  then  is  individuality  in  the  self-sustaining  organ- 
ism, will,  consciousness,  cause  and  effect  of  the  emotions; 
and  each  characteristic  of  individuality  is  a  manifestation 
of  individual  freedom  and  independence.  Therefore  vital 
force  is  not  only  one  and  universal  but  also  individual, 
hence  my  definition  of  life  is  established  in  fact.  It  is  no 
hypothesis,  it  is  the  theory  suggested  by  the  heterogen- 
eous facts. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  proved  that  vital  force  is  a  real- 
ity, an  immaterial  substance.  Life  had  a  beginning  on 
this  globe.  It  could  originally  and  can  now  manifest  it- 
self through  the  cell  only,  and  by  the  unification  and  har- 
monization thereof;  hence  there  must  exist  a  force  to 
bring  forth  and  to  govern  organic  matter  and  organic 
beings.  That  agent  being  at  the  same  time  one  and  uni- 
versal, differentiated  and  individualized,  saj'like  electric- 
ity in  the  galvanic  battery  insulated  on  a  glass  plate;  it 
must  be  an  immaterial  force,  which  can  be  separated  from 
the  matter  in  which  it  operates.  It  can  not  be  the  mere 
function  of  the  organism,  for  it  is  in  the  cell,  it  is  alike 
in  the  most  different  organisms,  it  is  one  and  universal, 
it  can  be  separated  from  the  organism.  It  is  no  heritage, 
because  every  being  stands  before  us  as  its  own  work. — 
It  is  in  fa-ct,  because  it  governs  matter  and  forces  in  the 
preservation  of  the  organic  individual's  identity.  It  is 
not  a  conglomeration  or  complex  of  forces,  because  it  pro- 
duces effects,  such  as  assimilation,  production,  will,  con- 
sciousness, and  emotion,  in  which  none  of  the  known 
physical  forces  are  detectable.  Hence  it  is  a  peculiar 
force.  Can  any  naturalist,  scientist,  chemist,  physicist,  or 
philosopher  tell  us,  why  we  should  not  call  it  vital  force? 
If  none  can,  and  so  I  do  varily  believe,  then  my  thesis  is 
established,  and  we  have  a  solid  fundament  of  biology. 

If  this  is  so,  then  this  universe  is  no  piece  of  dead 
mechanism.  There  is  vital  force,  there  is  life  in  it.  Force 
is  not  only  immaterial  but  also  alive.  Here  begins  an- 
other' aspect  of  ontology.  There  is  life.  We  lire  be- 
cause there  is  life.  So  we  have  gained  a  third  and  very 
important  point.  We  have  now  mind,  force,  and  life 
three  realities  to  lead  us  into  the  province  of  teleology, 
and  metaphysics.     Ladies  and  gentlemen  we  have  crossed 


BIOLOGY.  107 

the  threshold  in  the  temple  of  pure  cognition  and  higher 
knowledge.  Let  us  go  on  upward,  upward,  to  the  utmost 
limit  of  human  capacity. 

"The  Blind  of  man  in  this  world's  true  dimension 
And  knowledge  in  the  measure  of  the  mind; 
And  as  the  mind  in  her  vast  comprehension. 
Contains  more  words  than  all  the  world  can  find. 
So  knowledge  does  itself  far  more  extend. 
Than  all  the  minds  of  man  can  comprehend." 

"A  climbing  height  it  is,  without  a  head, 
Depth  without  bottom,  way  without  and  end; 
A  circle  with  no  vine  environed, 
Nor  comprehend,  all  it  comprehends. 
Worth  infinite  yet  satisfies  no  mind, 
Till  it  that  infinite,  of  the  Godhead  find." 


108  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 


LECTURE    XIV. 


THE  OBiaiN   OF  SPECIES. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen — How  did  the  numerous  spe- 
cies of  vegetables  and  animals  come  into  existence?  This 
problem  of  biology  or  cosmology  has  become  very  im- 
portant in  philosophy,  and  has  engaged  human  intelli- 
gence of  the  highest  order  to  solve  it  satisfactorily.  Be- 
sides the  existing  Flora  and  Fauna,  we  have  before  us 
three  instructive  volumes,  compiled  by  the  maker  of  all 
things  in  the  beginning,  in  characters  universally  legible, 
to  be  interpreted  by  the  disciples  of  science,  from  which 
we  ascertain  the  origin  of  species.  These  three  volumes 
are,  the  crust  of  the  earth  with  its  fossils,  the  ocean  teem- 
ing with  life,  and  the  embryonic  phases  which  every  liv- 
ing being  has  to  pass  before  it  becomes  an  independent 
individual.  "Whatever  we  read  not  in  either  or  all  of 
these  volumes  concerning  the  origin  of  species,  we  know 
not;  and  all  the  facts  read  therein  are  susceptible  of  a 
variety  of  explanations.  Therefore  we  have  now  three 
theories  on  the  origin  of  species,  to  which  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  add  a  fourth. 

The  theory  first  in  importance  is  that  of  Mr.  Charles 
Darwin,  an  improvement  on  those  of  Carus,  Goethe,  La- 
marck, Geoffroy  and  others,  by  an  addition  of  a  number 
of  hypotheses,  apparently  combined  to  a  system  of  evol- 
ution, or  actually  a  theory  of  transmutation.  This  theory 
starts  out  with  the  hypothesis  that  originally  organic  life, 
in  its  lowest  forms,  was  started  on  this  globe  in  one  or 
more  typical  beings,  whatever  their  number,  morphic  and 
physiological  structures  were — Mr.  Darwin  is  silent  on 
these  points — gifted  with  the  latent  capacity  of  un- 
limited variability,  fit  to  adapt  themselves  to  any  condi- 
tion in  ocean,  land  and  atmosphere,  by  the  acquisition  of 
new  organs  and  the  useful  adaptation  of  those  possessed, 
to  maintain  themselves  under  all  changes  of  conditions, 


THE   ORIGIN    OF    SPECIES.  109 

in  the  combat  of  existence,  i.  e.,  against  inimical  influ- 
ences of  the  elements,  and  hostile  concurrents  for  subsist- 
ance  and  females.  Those  creatures  which  failed  in  the 
adaptation  or  the  combat,  either  remained  in  the  lower 
classes  of  organisms,  or  were  destroyed  by  those  of  bet- 
ter adaptation,  more  force  or  skill  in  the  combat  of  exist- 
ence. These  organs,  internal  or  external,  acquired  by 
adaptation  were,  by  another  hypothesis,  inheritable,  if 
useful,  which  is  called  the  hypothesis  of  descendency, 
resting  upon  the  other  hypothesis  of  natural  selection, 
resting  again  upon  the  facts  of  domestic  selection  in  a 
few  instances.  To  all  these  hypotheses  comes  one  more, 
called  the  law  of  correlation,  a  law,  a  something  without 
a  name  or  definition,  which  in  case  of  the  useful  adapta- 
tion of  one  or  more  organs  to  new  conditions,  made  per- 
manent by  descendancy,  changes  and  re-adjusts  the  whole 
organism  in  harmony  with  the  acquired  organs,  instincts 
and  organic  process.  If,  for  instance,  a  graminivorous 
animal,  by  a  change  of  conditions,  would  be  forced  to 
subsist  on  animal  food,  its  teeth  would  adapt  themselves 
accordingly.  This  change  would  become  constant  (for 
which,  however,  no  proof  exists)  by  descendency ;  and  by 
the  law  of  correlation  the  stomach  and  the  other  intes- 
tines would  be  changed  and  re-adjusted  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  teeth.  This  morphic  transformation  and 
transubstantiation  wOuld  involve  also  a  change  of  appe- 
tites and  instincts,  and  all  the  physiological  changes  of 
bones,  muscles,  nerves,  size,  shape,  color,  hair,  wool, 
feathers,  or  bark. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  this  theory  there  are 
united  the  hypotheses  of  unknown  creation  of  the  first 
types,  unlimited  variability,  combat  of  existence,  de- 
scendency, and  the  law  of  correlation,  none  of  which  is 
supported  by  facts,  and  all  of  which  must  continually  co- 
operate to  produce  new  species.  Every  one  of  those 
hypotheses,  however,  has  been  refuted  by  Naegeli,  Baura- 
gartner,  Wigand,  Lange,  Von  Hartman  and  others. 

The  second  theory  is  that  of  Mr.  Baumgartner.  He 
starts  from  the  law,  "  Omne  vivum  ex  ovo,  omne  ovum  ex 
ovariay  Our  knowledge  of  life  reaches  not  beyond  the 
egg,  or  germ  cell;  hence  the  origin  of  species  must  have 
its  discernable  cause  in  the  agg  of  the  ovary  of  the  living 
organism  ;  and  there  he  supposes  to  find  it  by  heteroge- 
neous generation,  or  the  metamorphosis  of  germs ;  i.  e., 
it  is  in  the  nature  of  the  organism  that,  from  time  to 
time,  one  or  more  of  any  type  produce  eggs,  or  germ  cells, 
of  an  advanced  type,  which  then  becomes  constant.     So 


110  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

the  development  progressed  from  type  to  type,  from  spe- 
cies to  species,  genus  and  variety,  by  the  periodical  meta- 
morphosis of  germs.  Such  heterogeneous  generation  is 
actually  found  in  nature,  but  not  beyond  the  production 
of  varieties,  never  to  produce  species.  In  this  case  we 
have  first  the  beginning  of  life  on  this  globe  as  a  fact,  a 
miracle,  an  unknown  and  unknowable  anomaly,  so  that 
the  hen  must  have  preceded  the  egg  for  evermore.  In 
the  second  place  we  have  the  same  unwarranted  leap  to 
a  far-fetched  conclusion,  as  in  Darwin's  theory.  Mr. 
Darwin  says,  because  in  domestic  breeding  certain  use- 
ful organs  are  made  more  useful,  and  this  is  inheritable 
to  a  certain  extent,  therefore  nature  must  do  the  same 
thing  universally  and  continually,  although  domestic 
breeding  is  premeditated,  never  succeeds  beyond  slight 
variety,  and  can  not  be  made  constant  in  all  cases.  Mr. 
Baumgartner  says,  because  a  metamorphosis  of  germs, 
as  an  exception  and  mostly  among  the  lowest  class,  oc- 
curs, productive  of  varieties,  therefore  nature  must  do  the 
same  thing  universally  and  continually,  and  so  produce 
species.  Both  conclusions  are  illegitimate.  Both  Darwin 
and  Baumgartner  take  the  hypothesis  of  unlimited  varia- 
bility for  granted  without  the  slightest  evidence,  and  the 
assumed  law  of  correlation  without  any  definition.  Both 
theories  are  conglomerates  of  hypotheses  and  auxiliaries, 
none  of  which  has  been  or  could  be  supported  by  scien- 
tific evidence. 

The  third  theory  is  that  of  Mr.  "Wigand,  the  great 
botanist,  and  most  forcible  opponent  of  Darwinism.  He 
advances  the  creation  of  type  cells  or  type  protoplasma, 
in  which  all  the  capacities  and  abilities  of  the  species, 
morphic,  anatomical  and  physiological,  together  with  all 
the  instincts  and  appetites  of  each  organism,  were  origin- 
ally packed  and  stored  away,  to  be  developed  and  brought 
in  use  in  millions  of  years,  under  the  changes,  convul- 
sions, catastrophes  and  new  conditions  of  land,  sea  and 
atmosphere.  This  is  a  mere  hypothesis,  of  course,  which 
admits  of  no  scientific  evidence,  as  we  possess  no  means 
of  obtaining  any  of  those  tj-pe  cells  or  protoplasma,  or  to 
ascertain  their  inherent  force,  if  we  could  procure  them. 

Each  of  these  three  theories,  taken  for  granted,  it  is 
maintained,  will  account  for  the  origin  of  species ;  conse- 
quently, the  facts  which  have  a  bearing  upon  this  prob- 
lem must  be  susceptible  of  a  variety  of  explanations  ;  and 
so  they  are,  as  the  scientific  adherents  to  any  of  these 
theories  amply  prove.  Again:  none  of  these  theories  ac- 
counts, or  begins  to  account,  for  the  origin  of  life  on  this 


THE    ORIGIN    OF   SPECIES.  Ill 

globe ;  -while  each  of  thera,  aside  of  all  other  agencies, 
must  resort,  and  does  resort,  to  an  organic  force  which  is 
extra-organic  before  it  can  become  organic.  I  prove  this 
so : — 

Cuvier,  Flourens,  Agassiz,  Pictet,  Humboldt,  and  others 
maintain  that  within  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge  of 
historic  and  prehistoric  ages,  no  change  of  type  or  species 
has  been  noticed.  Pictures  of  animals  upon  Egyptian 
obelisks,  brought  to  ancient  Rome ;  animal  mummies 
brought  from  Egypt,  and  an  investigation  by  Cuvier  con- 
cerning the  Ibis  then  and  now,  as  well  as  the  elephants 
found  in  northern  ice-fields,  fully  testify  that  no  change 
whatever  has  taken  place  in  those  animals.  The  sheep, 
goat,  ox,  ass,  and  camel  were  the  same  domestic  animals 
in  the  time  of  Father  Abraham  as  they  are  now.  Wheat 
taken  out  of  an  Egyptian  grave  was  sown  and  the  same 
wheat  which  we  possess  now  was  reaped.  The  same 
cereals  and  fruits  on  which  man  and  beast  subsist  now, 
are  noticed  without  change  through  all  pages  of  history. 
The  plants  which  Passalaqua  has  found  in  Egyptian 
graves,  as  described  by  Knuth,  the  botanist,  are  identical 
with  ours,  although  some  varieties  have  been  lost,  it  ap- 
pears. Hence,  within  historical  ages,  there  is  no  trace  of 
unlimited  variability,  and  looking  beyond  that,  Agassiz 
well  remarked,  that  the  polyps  building  up  the  reefs  of 
Florida  for  at  least  30,000  years,  are  still  the  same  polyps 
precisely. 

As  far  as  the  existing  Flora  and  Fauna  are  concerned, 
unlimited  variability  is  not  discernable  ;  therefore,  if  this 
was  the  case  in  previous  stages,  it  ceased  to  exist  with 
the  constant  types  before  us ;  hence  they  are  the  result- 
ants of  former  developments,  from  the  infusorium  and 
algse  up  to  man  and  the  cedar  of  the  Lebanon.  Had  this 
evolution  been  effected  by  mechanical  means,  it  must 
have  been  very  slow  and  gradual,  with  all  gradations 
and  transition  forms  from  species  to  species.  But  that  is 
exactly  not  the  case  ;  there  is  no  systematic  chain  of  or- 
ganisms on  earth.  Not  mere  fissures  but  gaps  which  can 
not  be  bridged  over,  separate  tne  species  in  numerous 
instances,  so  that  Mr.  Carus  supposed  the  links  missing 
on  this  earth  must  be  somewhere  in  the  moon  or  in  the 
planets,  from  which  the  earth  was  separated. 

The  same  precisely  is  the  case  with  the  fossils.  The 
testimony  of  evolution  is  imbedded  in  the  crust  of  the 
earth,  but  not  evolution  by  any  mechanical  means;  for 
there  also  the  transition  forms  are  missing,  and  no  trace 
of  genetic  unity  is  left.     This  is  admitted  on  all  hands. 


112  THE   COSMIC   GOD." 

But  then  the  Darwinists  say,  what  we  have  not  dis- 
covered yet  we  may  discover  hereafter ;  for  all  we  know 
such  transition  forms  may  exist  and  be  discovered  any 
time.  To  this,  however,  we  could  well  reply,  whenever 
you  will  have  made  those  discoveries,  then  we  will  take 
them  into  consideration,  for  which  we  have  no  cause  now, 
as  that  which  might  be  proves  nothing  in  science.  As 
far  as  our  knowledge  reaches  now,  the  factors  of  evolu- 
tion are  not,  and  were  at  no  time,  of  a  mechanical  na- 
ture. But  we  have  a  better  reply  than  that — the  ocean 
and  the  embryo  prove  that  such  transition  forms  never 
existed,  hence  can  never  be  discovered.  In  the  ocean  we 
have  before  us  the  original  and  primary  generation,  from 
the  protoplasm  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  up  to  the  great 
monsters  of  the  deep.  In  thick,  warm,  salt  water,  the 
generation  of  organic  beings  took  its  start ;  thus  much  is 
certain,  and  continuous  production,  propagation  and  ex- 
tinction of  life  went  on  undisturbed  and  uninterrupted. 
The  ocean  was  not  exposed  to  the  violent  eruptions  and 
catastrophes  as  was  the  land  ;  hence,  in  the  ocean  the 
original  picture  of  organic  creation  is  preserved  intact. 
A  thorough  knowledge  of  oceanic  biology  is  equal  to  the 
best  information  we  can  obtain  of  the  first  work  of  or- 
ganic creation.  But  there,  and  there  again,  the  frag- 
mentary character  in  the  system  of  organisms,  without 
specimens  of  transition  from  species  to  species. 

The  same  is  the  case  in  embryology.  Our  knowledge 
of  the  various  stages  of  the  embryo  from  actual  observa- 
tions is  very  limited,  because  it  is  too  difficult  to  make 
them  among  higher  animals.  Yet  it  is  maintained  that 
the  embryo  runs  through  all  phases  of  organisms  as  its 
ancestors  did  in  their  natural  development  from  species 
to  species.  Then  this  ideal  semblance  of  those  various 
stages  to  certain  animals  is  converted  into  a  proof,  that 
the  higher  organism  must  have  evolved  from  those  lower 
organisms,  which  it  represents  at  different  times,  as 
though  an  ideal  semblance  was  anyproof  of  genetic  unity, 
and  more  than  an  ideal  semblance  was  certainly  never 
discovered  in  any  embryo. 

The  analogies,  in  the  best  known  cases,  are  far-fetched, 
and  the  conclusions  based  thereon  are  v6ry  doubtful,  to 
say  the  least.  But  granted  they  are  not,  in  order  to  ar- 
gue from  the  standpoint  of  the  Darwinists,  they  prove 
again  the  gaps  and  breaks  in  the  systematic  chain  of  gen- 
eration by  evolution  ;  for  the  embryo  runs  only  through 
a  few  stages,  and  offers  no  points  of  transition  from  spe- 
cies to  species,  or  genus  to  genus.   It  runs,  after  all,  only 


THE   ORIGIN   OP   SPECIES.  115 

through  the  stages  of  known  animals,  and  the  unknown 
must  remain  unknown.  Consequently,  there  are  no  such 
transition  forms,  none  will  ever  be  discovered,  and  evo- 
lution can  not  be  established  on  mechanical  principles. 

Besides,  only  the  Darwinists  attempt  to  account  tor  the 
origin  of  species  by  mechanical  agencies.  Mr.  Wigand 
begins  with  an  organic  force  which  makes  type  cells  or 
protoplasraa.  Mr.  Baumgartner  knows  of  organic  force 
only  throughout  the  whole  process.  The  same  is  the 
case  where  Mr.  Darwin  speaks  for  himself. 

Sexual  selection  and  the  ornaments  acquired  to  this 
purpose,  spring  from  no  mechanical  principle.  It  is  in- 
stinctive, connected  with  a  choice,  directed  to  an  object, 
consequently  it  is  will  and  intellect  connected  with  an 
appreciation  of  the  beautiful,  neither  of  which  can  be  re- 
duced to  mechanical  principles.  Again  :  if  descendency 
is  altogether  mechanical — which  I  can  not  see — the  law 
of  correlation  is  entirely  psychical  and  altogether  inde- 
pendent of  the  organism.  What  is  the  law  of  correla- 
tion? A  principle  or  force  which  works  a  change,  phy- 
siological and  morphic,  in  the  whole  body,  because  tho 
one  or  the  other  member  thereof  has  been  changed  by 
mechanical  causes. 

This  morphic  change,  however,  depends  on  the  causa- 
tive force,  a  force  which  must  be  active  everywhere  and 
at  all  times  to  efTect  this  re-adjustment;  without  it,  the 
whole  theory  falls  to  the  ground,  and  with  it,  we  have 
before  us  a  psychical  principle  as  the  main  cause  of  evol- 
ution. As  nothing  can  be  its  own  cause,  the  animal  itself 
is  not  the  cause  of  the  law  of  correlation.  As  this  phen- 
omenon is  universal,  so  must  be  the  cause,  which  in  many 
cases  must  work  simultaneously  on  several  individuals, 
which  stand  in  no  connection  with  each  other,  as  for  in- 
stance the  peculiar  appendages  of  an  insect,  and  the 
flower  from  which  it  seeks  its  nutriment. 

Therefore,  when  we  speak  of  an  organic  force,  we  can 
not  refer  to  something  which  is  in  this  or  that  plant  or 
animal  only ;  or  to  anything  which  this  or  that  organisni 
produces.  When  we  say  force,  we  certainly  mean  some- 
thing which  produces  phenomena,  and  not  a  phenomenon 
produced ;  we  mean  something  causative,  and  not  some- 
thing passive.  The  organic  force  which  is  the  cause  of 
evolution,  must  be  extra-organic,  cosmic,  vital  force.  If 
Darwin,  Baumgartner  and  Wigand,  must  admit,  and  do 
admit,  directly  or  indirectly,  our  first  principle  of  biology, 
viz.,  the  cosmic  existence  of  vital  force — or  is  there  any- 
body who  can  tell  the  difference  between  organic  forces 
8 


114  THE  COSMIC   GOD. 

and  vital  force  ? — and  with  their  respective  theories  they 
can  not  account  for  the  origin  of  species,  and  the  origin 
of  life  on  this  globe,  and  1  can,  starting  from  the  same 
principle ;  then  my  theory,  which  makes  the  fourth,  is 
certainly  preferable  to  the  three  former,  especially  as  it 
includes  their  main  points  in  their  proper  places.  Let 
us  hear  this  fourth  theory. 

Evolution  and  differentiation  as  the  fundamental  laws 
of  creation  are  now  admitted  on  all  sides,  and  Mr. 
Haeckel  well  remarks,  that  they  are  fundamental  in  the 
Biblical  cosmogony.  Differentiation  signifies  the  indivi- 
duation of  beings  from  and  by  the  universal  substance; 
and  evolution  in  this  connection  signifies  the  systematic 
and  rising  succession  of  organisms  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  in  the  process  of  individuation.  The  substance 
is  psychical.  Matter  is  known  to  us  only  in  the  form  of 
incoherent  and  heterogeneous  elements,  which,  if  not 
united  by  an  active  force^  must  remain  apart  forever. 
Matter  retains  in  all  forms  that  negative  quality  of  dis- 
solving in  its  elements,  if  not  prevented  by  active  force. 
Whether  matter  itself  be  created  or  uncreated,  is  indiffer- 
ent here ;  the  first  act  of  creation  of  this  or  any  other 
planet  was  the  action  of  a  central  force  upon  inert  and 
homogeneous  elements,  in  counteraction  of  their  negative 
quality  of  separation,  to  subject  them  to  the  creative  and 
forming  principle.  This  central  force,  from  which  all 
forces  in  matter  are  materialized  derivatives,  is  a  function 
of  the  substance  which  is  will,  intellect,  life,  God,  and 
partakes  of  the  same  nature  precisely,  i.  e.,  it  is  not  only 
psychical ;  it  is  will,  intellect,  life.  It  is  an  effect,  and 
must,  in  its  quodity,  be  like  its  cause.  Vital  force,  which 
is  also  will  and  intellect,  is  the  central  force  of  this  and 
every  other  planet.  It  appears  as  the  unconscious  plane- 
tary soul,  if  you  wish  to  call  it  so,  in  its  materialized 
state,  and  remains  mind  under  all  conditions,  will,  intel- 
lect, and  life.  It  overcomes  inert  matter,  prevents  its 
dissolution  in  heterogeneous  elements,  and  stands  in  per- 
petual relation  to  and  in  harmony  with  itself  in  all  planets 
and  suns,  according  to  its  own  eternal  laws.  It  is  perpet- 
ually and  continuously  at  work  to  govern  matter,  and  to 
liberate  itself  from  matter,  to  become  itself  again,  i.  c, 
conscious  and  self-conscious,  in  individualized  lives.  Its 
first  success  in  this  direction  is  the  production  of  the  pro- 
toplasm in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  This  is  generatio  equivoca, 
although  science  can  neither  imitate  nor  explain  it ;  still, 
if  vital  force  is  the  central  force,  then  the  miracle  is  ex- 
plained.    Pjotoplasma  are  little,  very  minute  building- 


THE   ORIGIN   OF    SPECIES.  115 

4stone8,  from  which  vital  force  constructs  all  organisms  in 
the  whole  system  of  life.  These  protoplasma  may  have 
iived  thousands  of  years  in  the  depth  of  the  ocean,  before 
matter  was  so  far  under  the  control  of  vital  force,  to  unite 
some  of  them  and  form  a  cell ;  for  a  cell  is  already  an  ar- 
tistical  structure.  Now  thousands  of  years  life  may  have 
existed  in  cells  onlj-,  and  uncountable  millions  of  them 
must  have  perished  before  matter  was  so  far  under  the 
control  of  vital  force,  and  sufficiently  qualified  to  serve  as 
material  to  the  building  up  of  organisms;  for  organic  be- 
ings are  made  of  organic  matter,  and  subsist  on  organic 
matter.  Also  the  vegetable  requires  organic  matter  for 
its  subsistence  ;  hence  countless  millions  of  protoplasma 
must  have  preceded  the  cells,  and  countless  millions  of 
«ells  must  have  preceded  the  lowest  organism  to  qualify 
matter  for  organic  purposes.  The  cells  are  the  building 
material  for  the  vital  force.  They  do  not  give  charac- 
ter to  the  organism,  nor  can  they  produce  any;  the  or- 
ganism gives  character  to  each  of  them  in  the  various  be- 
ings and  the  various  members  of  each.  Therefore  Wi- 
gand's  hypothesis  of  type  protoplasma  or  type  cells  is 
false  and  unnecessary  to  explain  the  origin  of  species. 

Organic  matter,  as  far  as  we  know,  is  just  as  inde- 
structible and  unchangeable  as  metallic  matter.  Notwith- 
standing the  continual  work  of  death  and  decay,  organic 
matter  remains  in  its  compound  condition  upon  the  earth's 
-crust  and  in  the  waters  of  the  ocean  as  well  as  the  bottom 
thereof.  It  is  continually  increasing  by  the  very  labor 
of  the  organisms,  changing  inorganic  into  organic  mat- 
ter. Every  plant  or  animal  that  dies  adds  to  the  bulk  of 
organic  matter,  and  renders  higher  conditions  of  organ- 
ism possible.  Therefore  after  a  sufficient  bulk  of  animal 
matter  had  been  laid  up  in  the  household  of  nature,  and 
vital  force,  as  the  formal  principle,  had  advanced  to  the 
organization  of  the  perfect  cell,  that  force  could  now  bring 
forth  everywhere,  as  the  state  of  the  ocean,  land  and  at- 
mosphere admitted,  organisms  adapted  to  each  age  and 
condition  of  the  earth  and  its  various  parts.  The  efficient 
cause  of  the  first  organisms  was  not  in  the  cell ;  it  was 
cosmic  in  the  vital  force,  which  weaves  cells  and  destroys 
them  to  increase  its  material  for  more  and  higher  organ- 
isms ,  hence  the  first  organic  types  did  not  spring  from 
the  cell  or  cells  by  the  combat  for  existence,  subsistence, 
and  females,  not  by  natural  selection,  descendency  or 
otheinviso  mechanically.  When  vital  force  had  succeeded 
in  reaching  the  next  highest  step  in  forming  the  germ 
•cell,  the  egg,  it  had  also  material  enough  accumulated  to 


116  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

develop  the  germs  into  organic  beings  of  different  indi- 
vidual characters]under  different  states  of  ocean,  land  and 
atmosphere,  with  sufficient  material  left  to  provide  for 
organic  beings,  organic  food  preceding  them  in  time,  as  it 
were,  to  pi'ove  design  and  premeditation. 

We  know  that  nature  loves  variety.  It 'loves  to  exhaust 
all  possible  forms.  There  are  type  metals,  type  crystals, 
type  infusoria,  and  in  no  case  any  of  Darwin's  or  Baum- 
gartner's  supposed  causes  could  have  been  co-operative ;. 
why  should  not  the  same  centi'al  force  of  nature  have,  in 
the  same  manner  and  by  the  same  cause,  produced  type 
vegetables,  type  animals,  species  and  races  of  all  kinds  ? 
None  can  see  the  necessity  of  either  Darwin's  or  Baum- 
gartner's  theory  and  hypotheses. 

Besides  all  this,  if  you  run  up  and  down  the  whole  or- 
ganism, you  will  find  that  all  centers  in  man.  Man  is  the 
complex  of  the  entire  organism  that  has  come  to  our 
knowledge  ;  and  all  parts  of  all  organisms  are  harmonized 
and  perfected  in  man.  When  the  ftithors  imagined  a 
higher  order  of  beings,  viz. :  the  angels  with  wings,  be- 
cause man  is  debarred  of  these  organs  of  the  bird,  they 
did  not  take  into  consideration  that  human  hands  con- 
troled  by  human  mind  are  far  superior  to  wings.  The 
whole  organism  consists  of  various  divisions  of  the  human 
organism  among  various  species  of  vegetables  and  ani- 
mals. Therefore  modern  biologists  succeed  so  well  in  dis- 
covering physiological  and  morphic  semblances  between 
parts  of  man  and  parts  of  this  or  that  animal ,  but  they 
will  never  succeed  in  discovering  the  human  organism  in 
any  animal.  If  we  take  the  fact  as  it  is  before  us,  it  sim- 
ply teaches  that  the  central  force  had  to  run  through  all 
these  various  phases  of  organisms,  as  expounded  above, 
before  it  could  realize  itself  in  the  self-conscious  center 
called  man.  That  there  are  leaps  and  gaps  in  the  system 
is  simply  because  the  species  have  no  genetic  relations — 
they  are  all  ideal,  and- ideal  only.  The  evolutions  were 
not  external,  they  were  internal  in  nature,  with  their 
cause  in  the  vital  force,  hence  in  perpetual  connection; 
with  the  whole  of  nature,  and  especially  this  ocean,  land 
and  atmosphere ;  which  were  by  no  means  systematic  in 
their  various  formations,  in  our  sense  of  mechanical  sys- 
tem. The  crust  of  the  earth  is  full  of  violent  transitions, 
eruptions,  catastrophies,  sudden  revolutions  without  sys- 
tematic connection  with  previous  conditions. 

This  fourth  theory  admitted,  viz.  :  that  the  cause  of 
evolution  is  in  the  internality  and  not  in  the  externality 
of  nature,  in  the  vital  force  itself,  and  not  in  the  morphic 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   SPECIES.  117 

structures  it  produces,  in  the  psychical  substance  and  not 
in  matter,  then  the  facts  advanced  by  Darwin,  Baum- 
gartner,  Wigand  and  the  others,  fit  it  very  well.  Nature, 
or  rather  its  central  force,  may  have  employed  all  those 
means,  combat  for  existence,  natural  selection,  variabil- 
ity, descendency,  correlation,  heterogeneous  generation, 
metamorphosis  of  germs,  and  a  hundred  other  means, 
psychological  or  meclianical,  under  different  states,  cir- 
cumstances and  combinations  of  influences,  external  or 
internal,  to  reach  its  object  and  to  realize  itself,  al- 
though neither  or  all  of  these  auxiliary  means  account 
for  the  origin  of  species,  and  the  appearance  of  man  on 
earth  as  the  complex  of  the  whole  organism. 

It  must  be  remarked  here  that  Mr.  Darwin,  in  regard 
to  the  combat  of  existence  to  obtain  females  and  suste- 
nance, has  overtaxed  his  imagination.  The  equal  num- 
ber of  male  and  female  births,  a  universally  acknowl- 
edged fact,  was  left  out  of  the  account.  Evidently  this 
factor  must  be  dropped  in  the  vegetable  kingdom  and 
among  monogamous  animals,  as  mostof  them  are.  Among 
birds  and  pigeons  especially,  the  birth  of  one  male  and 
-one  female  of  each  brood  at  the  time  is  the  rule,  and  the 
pair  will  stay  together  and  propagate,  if  not  separated  by 
violence.  Among  polygamous  animals  my  observations 
and  experiments  have  taught  me,  that  those  of  one  breed 
will  keep  together  in  peace,  and  the  males  divide  the 
females  among  themselves  by  common  consent.  Combats 
among  animals  on  this  account  are  very  rare,  except 
where  the  females  are  destroyed  by  the  hands  of  men,  and 
also  then  they  are  limited  to  a  very  short  time  annually, 
so  that  in  reality  the  whole  factor  amounts  to  very  little. 

Mr.  Darwin  appears  to  imagine  this  earth,  land  and 
ocean,  as  rather  a  small  patch,  overstocked  from  the  be- 
ginning by  a  vast  number  of  living  beings,  with  scanty 
provisions  of  food  made  for  them,  so  that  the  combat  for 
subsistence  was  perpetual.  On  our  real  earth,  however, 
after  so  many  thousand  years  of  increase  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  the  soil  still  offers  plenty  for  the  support  of  all, 
and  not  one  half  of  it  can  be  used  yet.  There  it  an  afllu- 
ence  and  superabundance  in  nature,  which  Mr.  Darwin 
evidently  did  not  take  into  fair  consideration,  or  else  he 
could  not  possibly  have  laid  so  much  stress  on  the  com- 
bat for  subsistence.  All  the  traceable  effect  this  factor 
may  have  produced  is,  that  the  weaker  members  of  a  race 
or  species  may  have  been  thrown  back  from  the  original 
center  of  the  family.  This  is  actually  the  case  among 
men,  and  undoubtedly  also  among  animals.     The  earth 


118  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

always  was  large  and  rich  enough  for  the  animals,  for 
they  were  not  tied  down  to  one  spot  as  man  was  by  agx*i- 
culture  and  despotism.     The  animals  migrated  freely. 

The  fourth  theory  accounts  for  the  appearance  of  life 
on  this  globe  and  its  progress  by  evolution  to  the  con- 
stant types  before  us,  provided  it  can  be  proved,  which  I 
will  attempt,  that  there  is  will,  intellect,  system  and  de- 
sign in  this  universe,  outside  of  all  organic  beings.  This 
leads  us  into  the  question  of  teleology,  to  be  discussed 
next. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  inner  court  of  the  sanctum  of 
philosophy,  duly  cleansed  of  many  prejudices,  and  law- 
fully prepared  to  open  the  sealed  book  of  efficient  and  final 
causes,  on  which  all  questions  of  religion,  moral  govern- 
ment, education,  the  whole  fabric  of  society  depends. 


ON  TELEOLOGY.  119 


LECTURE     XV. 


ON(  TELEOLOGY. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — "We  begin  this  evening  to 
speak  on  Teleology,  the  end,  aim  and  object  of  the  things 
in  nature,  and  of  nature  itself.  The  word  telos,  end,  aim, 
purpose,  or  object,  was  introduced  in  philosophy  by  Ar- 
istotle, and  I  use  the  term  teleology  in  this  sense,  as  most 
German  writers  do,  and  John  StuartMill  partly  did;  al- 
though the  word  has  been  used  differently  by  theologians 
and  scholastic  philosophers.  What  is  the  object  of  all 
these  things?  what  is  the  end  and  aim  of  the  whole  world 
of  existence?  why  is  it?  what  purpose  is  in  all  this?  These 
are  questions  which  every  thinking  man  must  have  pro- 
posed to  himself,  some  time  or  another.  Do  all  things 
exist  merely  to  be,  to  change,  and  to  disappear,  or  must 
they  fulfill  another  destiny,  serve  other  purposes,  and 
reach  other  ends  and  aims?  Does  all  nature  exist  to  and 
for  itself,  because  it  must,  or  is  purpose  in  its  existence? 
These  are  the  main  questions,  to  be  discussed  in  teleology. 

Some  naturalists,  and  materialists  especially  arc  op- 
posed to  teleology,  because,  chiefly,  it  has  proved  dama- 
ging to  the  progress  of  the  natural  sciences.  Lord  Bacon 
has  started  this  idea,  and  Baruch  Sninoza  has  built  his  sys- 
tem on  efficient  causes  exclusively.  God  and  nature  have 
no  ends  or  aims  in  view,  according  to  Spinoza.  Still  nat- 
uralists like  Bergmann,  Leuchart,  Milne  Edwards,  Esch- 
rieht,  Von  Baer,  Fechner,  Agassiz,  and  others,  and  phil- 
osophers like  Leibnitz,  Kant,  Trendlenburg,  and  Lotze 
have  admitted  the  inevitable  necessity  of  teleology  in 
philosophy,  and  its  utility  as  a  maxim  of  research. 


120  THECOSMIC  GOD. 

The  main  causes  of  this  difference  of  opinion  are  these: 
Teleological  speculations  were  pressed  too  far  and  too 
much  in  the  detail,  so  that  they  became  ridiculous,  and 
nugatory  to  science.  The  philosophers,  and  especially  in 
France  maintained  to  know  the  ends  and  utility  of  every 
object  in  nature.  When  Chrysipp  advanced,  the  horse 
was  made  to  draw  wagons  and  the  ox  to  drag  the  plough, 
he  did  not  know  that  the  horse  may  be  used  in  the 
plough.  When  it  was  maintained,  the  Negro  was  born 
to  be  the  slave  of  the  white  man,  or  nations  exist  for  the 
support  of  thrones  and  their  occupants,  the  teleology  was 
evidently  false.  When  others  insisted  upon,  that  the 
beautiful  colors  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms 
served  no  other  purpose  besides  pleasing  the  eyes  of  man 
the  teleology  was  one-sided.  When  others  completely 
turned  the  order  of  things,  and  said  the  bird's  feet  have 
been  constructed  so  by  a  benign  providence,  in  order  to 
enable  them  to  roost  upon  the  branches  of  the  trees,  pro- 
tected against  many  a  danger  ;  or  the  teeth  and  intestines 
of  the  carnivorous  animal  were  so  constructed  by  an  All- 
wise  Creator,  to  enable  the  animal  to  subsist  on  the  flesh 
of  others,  they  only  proved  their  utter  misunderstanding 
of  the  teleological  idea.  Therefore  Mr.  Holbach  said, 
"Those  who  discover  beneficial  ends  everywhere,  are  like 
the  lover  who  sees  riothing  but  perfection  in  the  object  of 
of  his  affections."  Let  us  add  thereto,  and  those  who  see 
ever}'^  where  the  want  of  beneficial  ends  are  like  hypo- 
chondriacs who  will  never  be  pleased. 

Besides  some  of  those  enthusiastic  thinkers,  instead  of 
Becking  to  discover  the  causes  of  phenomena  and  to  as- 
certain the  laws  thereof,  as  science  should  and  must  pro- 
ceed, ingeniously  guessed  the  utility  and  ends  of  natural 
objects  and  their  qualities,  and  called  their  guess  work 
science,  as  Mr.  Darwin  often  does.  Still  it  can  not  be 
maintained,  that  science  should  exclude  all  teleology,  as 
we  know  it  has  led  and  leads  to  man}^  valuable  discover- 
ies, as  Mr.  Darwin  often  proves.  Mr.  Cuvier  had  so  well 
studied  the  teleology  of  organism,  that  finding  one  pet- 
rified tooth  of  a  fossil  animal,  he  constructed  the  whole 
animal  accordingly,  and  gave  rise  to  a  new  science.  He 
discovered  almost  mathematical  certainty  in  the  relation 
of  the  bones  to  each  other  in  the  same  body,  so  that  one 
bone  or  a  part  thereof,  or  even  a  tooth,  sufficed  him,  to 
build  up  the  whole  animal  as  it  must  have  lived. 

The  next  cause  of  difference  in  opinion  was  the  anthro- 
jiomorphous  conceptions  of  God  and  nature.  The  house- 
hold of  nature  was  looked  upon  like  a  human  family  af- 
fair, God  and  nature  were  made  human  in  theory  and 


ON  .TELEOLOGY.  121 

practice,  and  then  the  utility  and  ends  of  all  natural  ob- 
jects were  expounded  from  that  standpoint;  so  every- 
thing must  have  its  knowable  end,  there  must  be  no 
waste  in  nature,  there  must  be  nothing  too  much  and  noth- 
ing lacking  any  where,  every  being  must  be  happy  in  its 
sphere,  exactly  as  a  wise  man  would  arrange  his  house- 
hold affairs.  God  and  nature  were  measured  bj^  the  nar- 
row guage  of  human  wisdom  and,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
were  found  wanting.  There  is,  however,  in  nature  an 
incalculable  waste  and  perpetiial  destruction  of  life. — 
There  is,  in  the* realm  of  nature,  pain,  suffering,  misery, 
-destruction,  and  death,  as  well  as  joy,  pleasure,  happi- 
ness, and  goodness,  and  pessimism  is  entitled  to  the  phil- 
osopher's most  earnest  reflection.  Still,  all  of  this  entit- 
les none  to*  the  conclusion,  that  there  is  no  plan,  no  de- 
sign, no  grand  object,  no  final  cause  or  causes  in  nature. 
It  rather  suggests  to  every  reasoner  that,  in  order  to  con- 
struct a  satisfactory  teleology,  the  anthropomorphous  con- 
ceptions of  G-od  and  nature  must  be  dropped.  God  is  no 
man  and  nature  no  dame,  and  the  household  of  nature 
must  be  measured  objectively,  by  the  facts  which  it  pre- 
sents, and  not  by  our  feelings,  wishes,  hopes,  desires,  or 
prejudices. 

The  last  objection  to  teleology  is  purel}'  materialistic. 
'The  materialists  want  no  final  causes,  no  ends,  aims,  de- 
signs or  purposes  in  nature ;  because  they  want  a  dead 
universe,  a  lifeless,  loveless,  and  thoughtless  piece  of 
mechanism,  s  self-moving,  self-sustaining,  and  self-adjust- 
ing automaton,  like  Mr.  Huxley's  man,  without  any  God, 
anthropomorphous  or  absolute.  But  as  soon  as  you  speak 
of  ends,  aims,  designs,  or  purposes  in  nature,  they  say, 
you  must  pre-suppose  an  intellect  in  or  above  nature;  an 
intellect  which  designs  and  executes,  hence  an  almighty 
•und  supreme  intelligence,  which  is  God,  whether  called 
by  this  or  any  other  name ;  the  very  thing  which  those 
materialists  do  not  wish  to  admit. 

As  a  maxim  of  natural  research  it  may  do,  i.e.,  we  may 
purposely  close  our  eyes  to  the  spiritual  or  intellectual 
side  of  nature,  in  order  to  see  clearer  its  mechanical  side 
and  better  understand  these  laws.  But  in  philosophy,  it 
will  certainly  not  do.  We  must  see  both  sides;  if  possible 
we  must  view  the  whole  to  arrive  at  the  truth.  There- 
fore we  must  discuss  teleology. 

The  most  general  and  least  holding  ground  of  gross 
materialists  is,  they  will  not  admit  the  existence  of  any- 
thing not  perceived  and  not  perceivable  by  our  senses. 
Then  they  say,  if  there  was  an  intellect  in  or  above  this 


122  TUE  COSMIC  GOD. 

nature,  why  is  it  imperceptible?    We  answer  first  with  su 
passage  from  the  book  of  Job: 

"But  wisdom,  whence  shall  it  be  found?  and  where  is 
the  place  of  understanding?  Man  knows  not  its  price; 
nor  is  it  found  in  the  land  of  the  living.  The  deep  saith: 
It  is  not  in  me;  and  the  sea  saith:  It  is  not  with  me. — 
Choice  gold  shall  not  be  given  in  exchange  for  it;  nor 
shall  silver  be  weighed  for  its  price.  It  can  not  be  weigh- 
ed with  gold  of  Ophir,  with  the  precious  onyx  and  sap- 
phire. Gold  and  glass  shall  not  be  compared  with  it, 
nor  vessels  of  fine  gold  be  an  exchange  for  it.  Corals  and 
chrystal  shall  not  be  named;  and  the  possession  of  wisdom 
is  more  than  pearls.  The  topaz  of  Ethiopia  shall  not  be 
compared  with  it;  it  shall  not  be  weighed  with  pure  gold. 

"But  wisdom,  whence  comes  it?  and  where  is  the  place 
of  understanding?  since  it  is  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  all 
living,  and  covered  from  the  fowls  of  heaven.  Destruct- 
ion and  death  say:  with  our  ears  have  we  heard  the  fame 
of  it.  Grod  understands  the  way  to  it,  and  He  knows  the 
place  of  it.  For  He,  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  He  looks; 
and  He  sees  under  the  whole  heaven:  to  make  the  weight 
for  the  wind;  and  He  meted  out  the  waters  by  measure. 
When  He  made  adecree  for  the  rain,  and  a  track  for  the 
thunders'  flash;  then  He  saw,  and  He  declared  it;  He  estab- 
lished it,  yea  and  searched  it  out.  And  to  man  He  said: 
Behold,  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom;  and  to  de- 
part from  evilis  understanding." 

Job  in  this  beautiful  poem  simply  says,  I  see  intelligence 
everywhere,  but  I  can  not  understand  the  essense  of  this 
powerful  medium  underlying,  regulating  and  governing 
all  things.  We  know,  that  nothing  is  perceptible  to  our 
senses  per  se.  Matter  is  imperceptible,  until  the  influence 
of  forces  render  it  perceptible  to  human  senses.  Force  is 
imperceptible  until  it  manifests  itself  in  matter.  We 
know  force  and  matter  exist,  but  we  also  know  that  our 
senses  perceive  them  not  in  a  state  of  isolation;  hence  we 
surely  know,  human  senses  can  perceive  matter  or  force 
by  and  in  their  combined  manifestations  only.  We  know 
them,  each  and  all  by  induction.  We  certainly  know 
just  as  well  and  by  the  same  method  the  existence  of  in- 
tellect  in  or  above  nature. 

We  hear  the  words,  or  examine  into  the  deeds  of  intel- 
ligent beings;  we  weigh  the  ideas  thus  presented  on  the 
scales  of  our  judgment,  and  decide,  intelligence  is  the 
cause,  words  and  works  the  efi'ect.  We  can  not  perceive 
the  intellect,  "It  is  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  all  living." 
as  force  without  matter  or  matter  without  force.     When 


ON  TELEOLOGY.  123 

the  Bible  states  that  Grod  said  to  Moses,  "No  man  can  see 
me  and  live,"  we  may  add,  no  man  can  perceive  with  hia 
senses,  intellect,  intelligence,  force,  or  even  matter  unless 
under  the  influence  of  force. 

And  yet,  who  can  deny  its  existence,  and  assert  there 
is  no  intellect?  While  he  admits  or  denies,  he  acts  under 
its  influence;  without  it  he  can  do  neither.  While  I  now 
speak  and  you  listen,  not  to  the  mere  sound  of  words,  but 
to  ideas,  definitions,  theses,  arguments,  and  conclusions, 
intelligence  stands  in  perpetual  report  to  intelligence  by 
the  mediation  of  articulate  sounds  and  auditory  organs, 
ganglia,  and  brain  fibres,  all  moved  by  the  intellect. — 
Here  it  is  in  this  very  moment,  and  yet  we  see  it  not,  can 
not  perceive  it  with  our  senses,  not  even  imagine  it.  Our 
knowledge  necessitates  us  to  acknowledge  three  substrata 
of  essence,  viz:  matter,  force  and  mind  or  intellect,  each 
of  which  is  imperceptible  in  its  isolation;  and  on  the  uni- 
versal law:  "Nothing  can  be  changed  without  a  cause  ex- 
ternal thereto  influencing  it,"  we  must  maintain  that  the 
changes  in  matter,  force,  or  mind  from  the  imperceptible 
to  the  perceptible  are  caused  by  reciprocal  causation. 

Still  it  is  no  more  difficult  to  comprehend  the  nature 
and  substantiality  of  the  intellect  than  of  any  force  at 
work  in  the  realm  of  nature.  Force  is  immaterial  hence 
psychical,  so  is  the  intellect.  Force  is  a  susbtratum  of 
things,  so  is  the  intellect  the  substratum  of  all  thoughts 
and  their  monumental  objectivity.  Force  becomes  known 
and  perceptible  to  man  by  its  manifestations  in  matter,  so 
does  the  intellect  in  words  and  works  which  are  its  man- 
ifestations. You  can  not  imagine  matter  without  force,  so 
you  can  not  imagine  thoughts,  words,  and  mental  works 
without  intellect.  There  can  be  no  machine  at  work 
without  propelling  force,  no  motion  without  motive  power, 
no  music  without  a  musician,  no  resultants  without  a  sub- 
stantial cause.  We  know  certainly  as  much  of  the  nature 
and  siibstantiality  of  the  intellect,  this  no  rational  mate- 
rialist will  deny,  as  we  do  know  of  the  nature  and  sub-^ 
stantiality  of  force. 

I  maintain,  we  know  more  and  better  of  the  intellect 
than  of  the  forces  in  general.  We  know  the  manifesta- 
tions of  forces  by  the  effects  exercised  on  our  organism, 
when  we  have  become  conscious  thereof  by  the  mediation 
of  the  intellect.  Hence  all  knowledge  of  force  is  with  us 
a  posteriori.  We  have  an  indirect  knowledge  thereof. — 
Our  intelligence,  however,  is  in  our  consciousness  direct- 
ly, not  carried  into  it  by  any  agency  whatever.  Every 
person  is  conscious  of  his  own  intellect;  hence  every  one. 


124  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

knows  its  existence,  nature  and  substantiality  a  priori,  di- 
rectly and  with  the  utmost  certainty  possible. 

Illustrate  so:  I  am  certain  of  the  presence  cf  artificial 
heat  in  this  temple,  by  the  sensation  I  feel  different  frour 
what  I  felt  outside  of  the  building.  I  am  conscious  of 
this  sensation  by  my  intellect.  Still  this  is  not  certain, 
for  the  temperature  of  the  atmosjDhere  or  of  my  body  may 
have  changed  meanwhile,  and  I  imagine  artificial  heat 
where  there  is  none.  But  there  can  be  no  doubt  to  me, 
that  i  am  now  in  this  temple,  because  I  know  it  hy  no 
-agency  outside  of  my  own  intellect.  The  objects  outside 
of  myself  undoubtedly  are,  although  I  possess  in  myself 
their  images  and  ideas  only.  I  could  not  imagine  or 
think  them,  if  they  were  not.  The  image  presupposes  an 
original,  the  idea  a  suggesting  object;  but  after  all  and 
w'ith  all  the  ingenious  arguments  and  formulations  by 
Ueberweg  and  Czolbe,  my  knowledge  of  all  things  out- 
side of  me  is  indirect,  a  posteriori;  therefore  the  imper- 
fection, the  error,  the  combinations  of  phantasy  to  be 
corrected  by  the  intelligence.  This  is  certainly  not  the 
case  with  man's  intellect;  I  know  myself  a  priori;  I  and 
my  intellect  are  identical,  hence  my  knowledge  of  it  is 
the  most  certain  I  possess.  All  which  must  be  proved  in 
teleology,  concerning  the  intellect,  is  its  existence  and 
substantiality  outside  of  man. 

Having  taken  the  first  bulwark  of  materialism,  let  us 
open  on  the  second.  Force  in  nature  is  regulated  by  law, 
i  e.,  under  given  circumstances  it  manifests  itself  so  and 
always,  produces  these  and  no  other  effects.  This  con- 
stancy'of  cause  and  effect,  established  by  experience  and 
experiment,  is  the  law  of  the  force  under  consideration. — 
The  laws  of  nature  are  the  laws  of  forces.  So,  for  in- 
■stance,  we  know  as  universal  law  that  heat  rises,  or  heat 
expands.  Once  knowing  the  law  of  a  force  or  cause,  in- 
telligence reverses  the  order,  to  discover  the  cause  from 
the  effect  or  eftecLs  before  it.  Illustrate  so:  We  know 
heat  expands.  Seeing  the  mercury  rise  in  the  thermom- 
eter, we  conclude,  the  heat  increased,  for  there  is  more 
expansion,  or  seeing  the  mercury  fall,  we  conclude,  there 
is  less  heat  now  in  the  same  locality. 

Here  is  synthetical  truth  a  priori:  Every  phenomenon 
in  nature  is  the  effect  of  a  cause,  and  every  cause  is  sub- 
ject to  its  law,  upon  which  all  structures  of  science  and 
philosophy  are  reared.  It  is  the  law  of  causality.  All 
naturalists,  mathematicians  and  philosophers  must  sub- 
mit to  it,  or  rather  each  of  them  starts  from  it.  There  is 
no  effect  without  its  cause,  no  cause  without  its  law. 


ON  TEOLOOGY.  125 

This  truth  is,  first,  in  the  human  intellect  spontaneous- 
ly. Since  man  exists,  he  has  sought  cause  behind  each 
etfect,  although  he  did  not  always  succeed  in  finding  tho 
correct  one;  and  has  always  expected  the  same  etfects. 
from  the  same  cause.  He  always  must  have  considered 
this  law  universal,  it  must  be  in  the  intellect.  Experience 
teaches  the  law  of  isolated  cases,  its  universality  is  spon- 
taneous in  tlie  intellect.  None  can  think  of  a  human  in- 
tellect in  unobstructed  activity  without  this  synthetical 
truth,  which  is  one  of  its  attributes,  manifested  in  the 
lowest  as  in  the  highest  processes  of  reason.  Therefore 
intellect  and  law  of  causality  are  inseparable.  Preyer 
maintains:  "That  (the  knowledge  of)  causality  is  an  orig- 
inal capacity  of  the  understanding,  prior  to  all  experience, 
and  an  a  ;)non  category,  has  been  known  already  to  Kant. 
That  this  is  the  only  category,  this  cognition  of  Schopen- 
hauer, is  probably  tho  greatest  philosophical  progress  sinco 
Kant.  '     Helmholz  also  adopts  this  theory. 

This  truth  is,  secondly  in  all  nature  outside  of  the  human 
intellect,  confirmed  by  all  human  knowledge,  observation, 
experience,  and  experiments,  as  far  as  science  has  penetra- 
ted into  the  mysteries  of  existence.     Here  is  already  some-  " 
thing  universal  in  nature  outside  of  the  human  intellect- 
which  is  also  in  it,  the  law  of  causality,  and  it  is  the  es- 
sentiality and  motor  power  of  both.     This  law  in  man   is 
in  his  intellect  and  inseparable  from  it;  hence  this  samo 
law  in  nature  outside  of  man  must  be  in  an  intellect. — 
Well  then,  here  we  have   already  an  intellect   in   nature 
outside  of  man.     Still  we  do  not  wish  to  achieve  so  easily 
so   important    a  victory  over  materialism,  especially  as 
its  champions  wish  to  be  met  on  their  own  battle  ground. 
Let  us  try  again. 

The  law  of  causality  being  admitted,  we  all  agree,  that 
nothing  in  this  universe  stands  above  or  beyond  the  law. 
But  as  the  forces  and  elements  are  heterogenous,  and  each 
follows  its  own  law  or  laws,  still  the  universe,  as  far  as 
we  know,  is  one  in  order  and  harmony,  the  forces  of  na- 
ture must  either  converge  to  the  one  single  purpose  of 
sustaining  permanently  this  order  and  harmon}'-,  or  one 
superior  force  must  control  all  of  them,  or  else  there  must 
be  continual  conflicts  in  nature  among  elements  and  for- 
ces, which  we  know  not  to  be  the  case.  Consequently 
there  is  co-operation,  co-ordination,  and  sub-ordination  in 
nature,  which  is  its  law  of  laws,  or  force  of  forces. 

Illustrate  so:  All  parts  constituting  a  body,  be  it  a. 
man,  a  bird,  a  house,  a  factory,  an  earth,  or  a  sun,  must. 


126  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

be  harmonious  in  their  co-ordination  and  sub-ordination, 
and  thus  co-operate  continually,  to  make  tho  existence  of 
that  respective  body  possible.  If  a  wheel  or  screw  in  a 
machine  is  not  constructed  according  to  the  law  govern- 
ing tho  whole  machine,  the  order  and  harmony  thereof 
18  destroyed.  If  the  heart  of  a  human  being  be  too  large, 
or  his  stomach  too  small  relatively,  according  to  the  law 
governing  his  whole  organism,  then  the  order  and  har- 
mony thereof  is  destroyed.  It  is  universally  so,  although 
each  part  of  ever}'-  body  be  governed  by  its  own  laws, 
the  whole  as  a  unit  must  be  governed  by  a  superior  force, 
or  the  various  forces  must  converge  in  this  one  par- 
ticular point  of  sustaining  intact  that  particular  unit  or 
body. 

Here  then  is  teleology,  here  are  final  causes.  In  every 
unit  you  may  single  out  in  this  universe,  infusorium  or 
naan,  fungus  or  palm  tree,  crystal  or  sun,  there  is  final 
cause  before  you,  there  is  teleology,  there  is  end,  aim  pur- 
pose, and  design.  And  if  you  then  rise  from  the  individ- 
ual objects  to  the  universe  as  a  unit,  you  have  before  you 
always  the  same  teleology,  the  same,  end,  aim,  purpose, 
and  design  of  preserving  the  whole  intact  as  a  harmo- 
nious unit.  There  is  the  same  final  cause  in  the  grand 
totality  of  nature  as  in  every  minute  object  thereof. 

Here  then  is  final  cause  and  final  causes.  We  leave  it 
to  the  materialists  to  decide,  as  they  please,  whether  these 
ends  and  aims  are  reached  by  the  converging  nature  of 
^11  forces,  to  meet  at  these  teleological  centers,  or  whether 
one  superior  force  governs  the  others  and  directs  them  to 
this  end  ;  and  take  them  by  their  own  word  :  "  Where 
there  is  end,  aim,  purpose,  design,  teleological  center  or 
oenters,  there  must  be  intellect  to  design  and  execute  ;" 
this  intellect  in  or  above  nature  must  be  allmighty  and 
allwise,  and  can  only  be  called  God,  that  very  God  whom 
they  wish  to  strike  out  from  the  nomenclature  of  science 
and  philosophy. 

But  I  am  not  going  to  accept  this  important  conclusion 
on  the  authority  of  materialism.  Having  now  laid  out 
the  basis  of  teleology,  I  will  examine  into  the  particulars, 
to  convince  you,  that  there  is  just  cause  for  every  honest 
thinker,  to  adhere  to  teleological  and  theistical  philoso- 
phy, upon  the  very  shoulders  of  science  and  all  its  bril- 
liant achievmeuts. 


"WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   NATUBE.  127 


LECTURE   XVI. 


WILI»  AND  INTELLECT  IN  NATURE. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — Let  us  look  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  teleology  from  a  reversed  standpoint.  Let  us  see 
whether  we  can  not  discover  will  and  intellect  in  nature 
by  the  strictly  inductive  method,  and  in  full  harmony 
with  natural  science.  If  we  succeed  in  this  point,  then 
let  us  say  there  is  no  will  without  an  aim,  and  no  intel- 
lect without  design  and  purpose;  hence  if  there  is  in  na- 
ture, outside  of  man,  will  and  intellect,  there  are  end,  aim, 
design,  and  purpose;  there  is  teleology. 

Seeking  to  find  in  nature,  if  possible,  will  and  intellect, 
means  we  investigate  whether  there  are  any  facts  in  na- 
ture which  necessitate  reason  to  acknowledge  the  exist- 
-ence  of  will  and  intellect  independent  of  man;  for  to  prove, 
means  to  necessitate  reason  by  logical  conclusion,  to  ac- 
cept as  a  fact  one  naturally  contained  in  another  and  ac- 
knowledged fact.  Therefore,  although  knowing,  as  we  do 
already,  that  every  object  of  nature  as  well  as  the  cosmos 
itself  is  a  teleological  center,  and  represents  end,  aim, 
purpose,  design,  and  proper  execution,  consequently  there 
must  be  an  intellect  at  work  in  this  nature,  or  above  it, 
80  that  we  might  justly  maintain  we  have  continually  be- 
fore us  the  manifestations  of  intellect  in  the  universe;  we 
discover  behind  all  objects  an  eflScient  and  intellectual 
cause  to  select  and  apply  proper  means  for  carrying  into 
effect  ends,  aims,  designs,  and  purposes  pre-established; 
Still  we  have  no  clear  idea  of  will  and  intellect  them-  ' 
selves,  which  we  know  now  by  conclusions  only,  and  not 
by  their  own  criteria;  and  of  whatever  we  have  no  clear 
idea  by  its  own  criteria  in  our  intelligence  that  has  not 
for  us  the  force  of  certainty  and  necessity.  Let  us  make 
the  attempt  to  form  clear  ideas  of  will  and  intellect  in  na- 
ture independent  of  man. 

In  our  lecture  on  biology,  we  have  seen  that  vital  force 


128  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

differentiated  always  manifests,  more  or  less,  a  certain  de- 
gree of  freedom.  Therefore,  no  two  plants,  and  no  twO' 
branches,  leaves,  blossoms,  or  fruits  of  the  same  plant  aro 
actually  identical;  each  manifests  some  difference  by 
whicb  it  is  distinguished  from  all  others  of  its  kind. 

It  hardly  need  be  said  that  this  is  the  case,  only  more 
BO,  among  animals,  especially  of  the  higher  types,  no  two 
of  which  are  exactly  identical.  The  higher  you  rise  in 
the  scale  of  organism,  the  more  conspicuous  are  these 
characteristic  differences  in  individuals  of  the  same  race 
or  family,  so  that  among  us  Caucasians  the  api^roximate 
identity  of  any  two  persons,  also  twin  brothers  or  sisters^ 
has  never  been  established.  The  higher  the  vital  force 
rises  in  its  differentiation,  the  closer  it  approaches  fixed 
individuality,  and  it  reaches  it  in  the  highest  types  of  hu- 
manity. In  the  origin  of  species,  the  lower  types  are  in 
a  state  of  mutability  and  variability,  while  the  highest 
ones  are  individually  fixed. 

The  repeated  assertions  of  modern  fatalism,  concerning 
iron  necessity  in  nature,  as  though  man  was  incapable  of 
governing  and  directing  matter  and  force,  subjecting  and 
a^jplying  them  to  his  purposes — aro  entirely  false  if  ap- 
plied to  the  organic  kingdoms,  in  which,  as  in  vital  force, 
general  laws  and  individual  freedom  are  observable  ev- 
erywhere. All  objects  existing  according  to  their  inhe- 
rent laws,  are  free,  the  law  makes  them  free.  Freedom  is 
limited  by  outer  violence  only.  All  nature  and  every  in- 
dividual thereof  is  free,  where  no  disturbance  from  out- 
er violence  takes  place.  In  consequence  of  universal  free- 
dom, the  individual  possesses  the  inherent  power  to  devi- 
ate from  the  general  law;  and  in  consequence  of  this  in- 
herent power  of  deviation,  no  two  individuals  are  exactly 
alike;  the  man  who  trains  fleas  to  perform  on  a  sheet  of 
white  linen,  knows  one  flea  from  another,  as  we  know 
one  rose  from  another  by  the  appearance  of  tints  and  ar- 
rangement of  leavlets,  also  without  the  aid  of  the  micros- 
cope. So  freedom  is  visible  everywhere  also  to  the  na- 
ked eye.  Let  us  now  examine  what  is  freedom  substan- 
tially. 

I  define,  freedom  is  the  actualization  of  an  inherent  will- 
There  can  be  no  freedom  without  a  will,  and  in  every  act 
of  freedom  which  is  actualized,  will  is  the  cause  and 
freedom  the  effect.  Therefore  it  is  certain  that  in  the  two 
realms  of  organisms,  will  is  actualized  and  manifested  in 
every  individual  thereof;  therefore,  it  must  be  there  in- 
herently and  permanently.  One  need  not  adopt  the 
whole  dogma  of  Schopenhauer,  viz.,  will  is  the  world's 
substance;  or  even  refer  to  E.  von  Hartmann's  elaboration 


WILL   AND   INTELLECT  IN"  NAlTJRfi.  1*29^ 

^f  the  dogma,  and  must  still  see  the-  presence  of  will  in 
the  manifestations  of  freedom. 

Is  not  this  anthropomorphous  speculation?  Do  we^  not 
transfer  our  human  will  to  animals  and  plants?  The 
Darwinists  can  certainly  not  raise  such  an  objection  to 
our  proposition,  for  with  Mr.  Darwin  the  origin  of  spe- 
cies depends  entirely  on  the  presence  of  will  in  every  in- 
dividual of  the  two  kingdoms  of  organisms;  The  orna- 
ments and  improved  songs  of  the  male  bird,  for  instance,' 
are  purposely  acquired  to  please  and  captivate  the  atten- 
tion of  the  female;  which  demonstrates  will.  Prehensile* 
organs  and  defensive  appendages  grow  out  of  the  animal's 
body,  according  to  Darwinism,  by  the  repeated  exertions 
of  the  animal's  will.  In  fact,  the  whole  system  of  Dar- 
winian evolution  is  based  upon  the  principle  of  teleology,, 
carried  into  every  detail  or  organism,  always  tacitly 
postulating  the  presence  of  active  will  in  every  organic 
individual.  If  we  could  accept  Darwinism  as  an  estab- 
lished fact,  teleology  and  the  existence  of  will  would  be 
proved  eo  ispo.  Therefore  if  the  Darwinists  subscribe  not 
to  Schopenhauer's  dogma — i.  e.,  will  is  the  worlds  sub- 
stance— they  must  anyhow  admit  its  inherentand  perma- 
nent existence  in  every  organic  being. 

But  aside  of  Darwinism,  the  proposition  is  demonstra- 
ble by  facts  of  actual  observation,  as  Schopenhauer  and 
Hartmann  have  done.     Cast  a  glance  upon  the  center  in 
the  organic  chain.     If  a  glass  of  water  containing  a  polyp 
be  so  placed  that  the  vessel  be  partly  in  the  shade,  the 
polyp  will  instantly  move  to  the  sunny  side.     The  Little 
creature  exercises  its  will  to  abide  under  the  influence  of 
the  sunbeams.     Put    a  living  infusorium   into  the  glass 
within  a  few  lines  of  the  polyp  and  it  will  agitate  the  wa- 
ter so  as  to  bring  the  infusorium  to  its  mouth  and  swal- 
low it.     Put  a  dead  infusorium,  or  another  small  object, 
in  the  same  position  to  the  polyp,  and  it  will  not  move. — 
Here  is  the  exercise  of  intentional  will.     It  is  no  rare  in- 
stance that  two  polyps  fight  over  an  infusorium,  or  that 
an  Australian  ant  cut  in  two,  the  two  halves  of  the  same 
body  will  fight  one  another  to  death  or  exhaustion.     Here 
is  will  under  the  impulse  of  an  affect,  will  without  brain, 
ganglia,  or  nerves.     As  you  rise  in  the  scale  of  organism 
the  manifestation  of  will  becomes  so  much  more  percept- 
ible  to  the    cursory  observer.     The  dog  wills  to  follow 
its  master.     The  horse  wills,  or  wills  not,  to  perform   its 
task.     The  mule  is  stubborn;  the  lamb  is  gentle;  the  lion, 
like  the  cat,  patiently  watches  its  prey  and  an  opportu- 
nity to  seize  it.     It  is  will  in  all  these  instances,  percept- 
ible to  the  naked  eye.  , 
0 


130  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

Will,  outside  of  the  purely  human  will,  points  directly 
to  the  existence  of  the  following  conditions.  There  must 
be  in  the  animal  a  natural  necessity  to  be  gratified,  and 
this  necessity  must  produce  a  corresponding  desire.  This 
desire  is  called  instinct.  Then  the  object  outside  the  ani- 
mal and  within  its  limits  of  perception,  calculated  to  grat- 
ify that  desire,  by  an  instinctive  impulse,  agitates  and  in- 
tensifies the  desire  to  an  actual  voilition.  So  the  will  is 
moved  and  volition  produced  by  an  inward  impulse  and 
an  outward  motive.  It  combines  the  efficient  and  final 
causes,  is  at  the  same  time  subjective  and  objective,  viz: 
in  its  origin  and  object.  The  volition  must  always  have 
in  view  an  object,  to  be  reached  by  adequate  means  or 
exertions.  While  desire  and  impulse  rousing  the  will  to 
volition,  are  purely  instinctive,  the  volition  employing 
means  to  i-each  a  given  end,  must  be  intellectual. 

Will  in  every  instance  of  volition  can  be  intel- 
lectual only,  so  that  none  can  possibly  think  of  will 
or  volition  without  an  intellectual  process.  Therefore  will 
and  intellect,  as  also  Hartman  maintains,  are  insejjarably 
united. 

Illustrate  so:  The  dog  is  hungry,  feels  the  natural  de- 
sire for  food.  A  piece  of  meat,  which  he  sees  or  smells, 
gives  him  the  impulse  to  gratify  his  desire  by  this  par- 
ticular piece  of  meat.  Here  the  instinct  stops.  He  wills 
that  piece  of  meat,  i.  e.,  he  employs  the  adequate  means 
to  overcome  all  obstacles  and  reach  his  aim.  Suppose  a 
person  be  in  the  room  whom  the  dog  fears,  he  waits  for 
that  person's  departure,  and  as  soon  as  this  has  taken 
place,  the  dog  snatches  the  meat  and  carries  it  to  a  quiet 
corner.  This  is  certainly  an  intellectual  process.  In  any 
and  every  case  of  animal  actualization  of  will  in  volition, 
the  same  process  exactly  takes  place;  for  means  must  be 
chosen,  adapted  to  an  end;  a  purpose  is  to  be  realized.  Al- 
though not  every  volition  is  realized,  and  the  means  em- 
ployed are  not  adequate  in  every  instance,  still  the  intel- 
lectual process  is  always  the  same,  as  the  means  must  be 
present  to  the  animal  before  the  volition  is  executed. 

.Without  entering  here  again  upon  the  difference  of  hu- 
man and  animal  will  and  intellect,  we  are  entitled  to  the 
conclusion  that  there  is  will  and  intellect  wherever  there 
is  life.  Keflex  motions,  falsely  called  reflex  will,  being 
involuntary  motions  of  the  muscles  caused  by  external 
irritations,  are  no  acts  of  will.  They  are  mechanical  and 
find  their  cause  in  the  peculiar  construction  of  the  mus- 
cle; but  every  other  motion  is  certainly  the  demonstra- 
tion of  will  and  intellect. 


WILL   AND   INTELLECT    IN   NATURE.  131 

It  must  be  added  that  the  animal's  natural  desires,  ap- 
petites, etc.,  called  instincts,  are  the  resultants  of  muscu- 
lar motion,  contraction,  and  expansion,  purely  mechanical 
and  beyond  the  control  of  animal  will  or  intellect. — 
Those  mechanical  processes  which  we  call  instincts  are 
the  works  of  apparatuses  teleologically  constructed  to  sus- 
tain the  animal  and  the  race,  without  the  continual  co- 
operation of  which  the  animal  can  not  live.  These  in- 
voluntary actions  of  the  body,  as  the  actions  of  the  heart, 
stomach,  and  intestines,  which  act  as  levers  to  the  will 
and  intellect,  are  all  minutely  regular,  systematical  and 
teleological.  Being  the  causes  of  the  instincts,  they  also 
are  regular,  systematical,  and  teleological.  Therefore  the 
instincts  are  fundamental  principles  of  teleological  cen- 
ters. All  of  them,  although  beyond  the  control  of  the  an- 
imal, nevertheless  harmoniously  co-operate  to  work  out 
one  final  cause,  viz.:  the  existence  of  the  individual  and 
its  race.  No  animal  can  have  a  superfluous  instinct,  nor 
can  it  have  one  less  than  necessary  to  its  purposes,  as  the 
instincts  8j)ring  from  the  involuntary  muscular  action. — 
So  the  mechanical  and  involuntary  actions  of  animal  and 
vegetable  and  the  resultant  instincts  show  distinctly 
end,  aim,  purpose,  and  design,  and  consequently  will  and. 
intellect  in  nature  outside  not  only  of  man,  but  of  both 
organic  kingdoms.  Therefore  Kant  maintained  that  the 
instincts  are  revelations  of  Diety. 

Are  will  and  intellect  substances,  or  are  they  accidents 
attributes  or  functions  of  a  substance?  The  foolish  idea 
that  life,  will  and  intellect  are  accidents  of  the  organism, 
has  been  refuted  already,  for  we  have  proved  before  the 
•existence  of  vital  force,  and  have  shown  already  that  the 
organism  is  the  resultant  of  will  and  intellect;  it  is  a  tel- 
eological center.  Nothing  can  be  resultant  of  itself.  Be- 
sides we  know  will  and  intellect  exist  in  the  invertebrate 
animals  down  to  polyp,  and  by  the  detnoijstration  offree- 
dem  we  discovered  them  also  in  the  vegetable  kingdom; 
hence  they  are  independent  of  nerves,  ganglia,  brain,  and 
every  particular  ari*angement  in  any  organism. 

We  know  that  will  and  intellect  exist  and  manifest 
themselves  wherever  life  exists,  as  we  know  that  light 
and  heat,  positive  and  negative  electricity  are  in  constant 
connection.  Life  itself  is  known  to  us  as  a  psychical  sub- 
stance, called  vital  force.  Hence  will  and  intellect  are 
either  in  constant  unison  with  life  as  independent  agen- 
cies, or  they  are  the  attributes  of  life,  or  vice  versa. 

Again  we  know  that  a  substance  not  always  manifests 
xill  its  attributes  simultaneously.     For  instance,  heat  con- 


132  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

sumes,  expands,  and  is  the -cause  of  the  flame;  yet,  under 
certain  conditions,  heat  manifests  not  its  burning  and 
flaming  properties,  and  under  other  conditions,  its  ex- 
panding property  remains  latent.  So  we  know  that  un- 
der certain  conditions,  like  sleep,  disease,  idiocy,  somnam- 
ulisra,  etc.,  life  appears  without  will  and  intellect  at  that 
particular  time  and  space,  consequently  we  are  entitled 
to  the  conclusion  that  will  and  intellect  are  attributes  of 
life,  i.  e.,  vital  force  is  the  substance,  will  and  intellect  its. 
attributes.  Inasmuch,  however,  as  the  attribute  is  that^ 
to  speak  with  Spinoza,  which  reason  understands  of  the 
substance  as  being  its  essence;  vital  force  is,  besides  its 
other  attributes,  will  and  intellect;  or  intellect  is  will  and 
life;  or  will  is  life  and  intellect;  the  three  are  one  substance, 
manifesting  itself  in  its  various  attributes.  It  is  no  tri- 
une substance  or  a  trinity,  as  a  substance  can  be  one  only^ 
but  these  three  manifestations,  as  appearing  to  the  hu- 
man intelligence,  are  in  fact  only  three  attributes. 

We  have  seen  in  our  lectures  on  biology  that  vital' 
force  is  both  universal  and  differentiated.  It  is  univer- 
sal because  a  force,  and  differentiated  in  the  individual 
beings.  It  is  omnipresent  in  its  universality,  and  ap-- 
pears  intime  in  its  differentiation.  Hence  we  know  beyond 
a  doubt  or  peradventure,  the  existence,  substantiality,. 
and  universality  of  life,  will  and  intellect  in  this  vast  do- 
nxain  of  nature,  in  man  and  outside  of  him,  in  animal  andi 
plant  and  independent  of  them,  here  and  everywhere,, 
now  and  forever;  since  the  attributes  can  not  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  substance  of  which  they  are  attributes,. 
as  little  as  extension  can  be  separated  from  space.  Life- 
being  a  substantial  force  outside  of  all  beings,  will  and  in- 
tellect must  be. 

We  consider  our  thesis  established;  hence  freedom,  life, 
will  and  intellect  in  nature  outside  of  man  and  all  organ- 
isms; therefoi'e,  also,  end,  aim,  purpose  and  design,  there 
is  teleology  in  this  vast  domain  of  the  universe. 

Upon  the  broad  highway  of  the  natural  sciences  and 
under  the  steady  guidance  of  induction,  we  have  arrived 
already  at  the  very  gate  of  metaphysics.  But  we  shall 
not  yet  enter  it  as  long  as  other  proofs  are  at  our  com- 
mand to  overthrow  the  bulwarks  of  materialism,  and  to- 
establish  the  spiritual  and  intellectual  side  of  nature. — 
In  our  next  lecture  we  will  try  another  standpoint,  and-. 
fiee  whether  it  leads  not  to  the  same  results  precisely. 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   HISTORY.       13S 


LECTURE  XVII. 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL  AND  INTELLECT  IN  HISTORY. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — The  history  of  the  human 
family  is  a  continuation  of  the  grand  scheme,  realized  in 
the  creation  of  this  earth,  and  the  host  thereon.  Crea- 
tion's closing  work  was  man,  and  with  the  first  man  his- 
tory begins,  to  end  with  the  last.  Although  we  have  no 
exact  knowledge  of  its  earliest  details,  still  we  know  that 
the  development  of  facts,  which  underlie  the  pyramid  of 
history,  begins  with  the  doings  of  the  first  man,  and  not 
with  the  mollusks  or  opossums.  The  first  human  deed 
was  the  first  stone  at  the  base  of  the  towering  structure 
called  history. 

The  law  of  causality,  the  continual  chain  of  cause  and 
effeet,  is  as  clearly  and  intelligibly  manifested  in  history, 
as  in  physical  nature;  not,  indeed,  in  brain  dispositions 
and  improved  nerves,  but  in  deeds  and  facts  of  actualized 
mind  outside  of  the  human  being.  So,  for  instance,  the 
late  Franco-German  war  was  certainly  not  the  effect  of 
particular  brain  dispositions  newly  acquired,  for  wars 
were  waged  thousands  of  years  ago;  still  it  was  the  effect 
of  causes,  and  became  in  its  turn  the  cause  of  the  French 
republic  and  the  secularization  of  the  Papal  dominion,  the 
further  effects  of  which  are  now  incalculable;  all,  however 
without  any  changes  in  brain  dispositions  or  structure  of 
the  nerves. 

Those  who  have  read  Herder,  Kant,  Guizot,  Buckel, 
and  others  on  the  philosophy  of  history,  Hegel  on  the 
history  of  philosophy,  or  Steinthal's  and  Lazarus'  essays 
and  books  on  the  Voelkerpsychologie  (psychology  of  na- 
tions), will  certainly  not  deny  the  law  of  causality  in 
man's  history;  and  I  believe,  the  materialists  also  will  ad- 
mit, there  is  sufficient  ground  to  rely  on  those  authors 
in  this  particular  point. 


134  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

Is  there  teleology,  final  cause  in  history?  is  end,  aim,, 
object,  design,  purpose  and  proper  execution  discernable 
in  the  history  of  man,  or  is  the  human  family  drifting 
upon  the  boundless  ocean  of  existence  without  any  ulti- 
mate purpose?  If  there  is  teleology  in  history,  then  the 
question  arises,  by  which  force  or  forces,  power  or  powers? 
It  is  evident  to  my  mind,  that  there  is  teleology  in  his- 
tory and  by  a  superhuman  power,  and  I  will  expound  to 
you  the  evidence  in  my  possession. 

We  may  set  down  as  a  general  principle  :  Every  con- 
tinuous chain  of  cause  and  effect  in  nature  is  teleological, 
resulting  continually  in  teleological  centers,  which  every 
individual  being  is.  What  German  philosophers  call  a 
causalnexus  is  also  a  teleological  center,  the  final  cause  of 
the  complex  of  co-operative  efficient  causes,  to  bring  forth 
this  natural  object,  crystal  or  sun,  protoplasm  or  man. — 
Their  successive  co  operation  proves  the  primary  inten- 
tion of  the  process.  What  is  true  in  nature  must  also  be 
true  in  history.  The  same  chain  of  cause  and  effect  must 
also  be  teleological;  and  each  state  of  society,  every  day, 
every  hour,  and  at  every  place,  must  be  a  teleological  cen- 
ter. Analogy  is  certainly  in  my  favor,  and  logic  no  less. 
For  every  state  of  society,  being  demonstrably  the  result 
of  preceding  efficient  causes,  is  the  ultimatum  in  the  log- 
ical chain  of  legitimate  conclusions,  always  the  only  log- 
ical result  of  all  preceding  links,  and  contained  in  them. 
So  the  very  last  effect  at  any  given  time,  is  the  very  aim 
and  object,  or  final  cause,  of  all  preceding  causes  and  ef- 
fects, down  to  the  primary  cause,  and  must  be  contained 
therein  potential!}^  and  intentionally^  because  logical  in 
each  and  all.  This  is  certainlj' premeditated  teleology  in 
the  strictest  sense  of  the  term.  Each  state  of  society,  in 
its  turn,  becomes  again  the  cause  of  the  succeeding  one, 
and  so  on  to  the  supposed  end  of  history;  hence  the  whole 
chain  is  logical  and  teleological. 

Let  us  suppose,  we  see  tw^o  piles  of  square  stones  on  op- 
posite sides  of  a  street.  We  imagine  some  purpose  or  an- 
other, although  not  the  correct  one.  Artizans  take  apart 
the  square  stones  on  one  side  of  the  street  and  erect  a  goth- 
ic  cathedral  with  its  ornamented  doors,  windows,  stee- 
ples, and  emblems.  On  the  other  side,  other  artizans  take 
apart  the  other  stone  pile,  and  erect  from  the  well-meas- 
ured square  stones  a  Byzantine  temple  with  its  doors,  win- 
dows, pillars,  arabesques,  and  minarets.  Now  we  are  able 
to  tell  that  in  two  seemingly  equal  piles  of  stones,  there 
were  actually  two  complete  designs  of  two  different  struc- 
tures.    Having  this   point  we  run  back  through  every 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   HISTORY.      135 

step  of  the  previous  proceedings  to  the  first  men  who  met 
and  schemed  the  erection  of  these  buildings,  a  perfect 
chain  of  cause  and  effect  with  its  teleological  center  now 
visible  in  the  two  buildings,  although  the  very  buildings 
must  have  been  present  potentially  all  along  in  every  step 
taken,  and  every  piece  of  work  done.  Then  we  calculate 
the  influence  to  be  exercised  from  those  buildings  on  the 
human  family,  which  leads  us  not  only  onward  but  also 
backward  to  causes,  which  produced  in  the  Christian  the 
taste  for  the  Gothic  style  and  in  the  Jew  a  predelictioa 
for  the  Oriental  style  of  architeoture;  and  how  the  ideas 
connected  with  this  point  reached  our  generation  and  will 
influence  coming  ones,  all  in  a  logical  chain  of  cause  and 
effect. 

Take  another  point  to  illustrate:  Here  I  stand  before 
you  to  exercise  the  privilege  of  free  thought  and  free 
speech.  We  call  this  a  final  cause,  a  teleological  center  of 
importance  in  history.  This  privilege  is  a  resultant  of 
preceding  active  causes.  The  Hebrew  polity  had  to  pass 
through  a  series  of  reforms  made  possible  by  the  advan- 
ced spirit  of  the  age,  which  is  again  a  resultant  of  other 
and  ever  as  many  causes,  while  the  freedom  of  speech  and 
thought  is  the  offspring  of  the  American  revolution.  This 
again  is  the  child  of  previous  causes,  among  them  the 
staoip  act,  duty  on  tea,  the  conduct  of  George  III,  and  his 
advisers,  the  situation  and  the  disposition  of  the  colonists, 
the  bravery  and  patriotism  of  George  Washington  and 
his  compatriots;  none  of  these  causes  could  be  omitted  and 
the  same  end  be  reached.  All  this,  however,  depends 
again  on  previous  conditions  of  the  pioneers  in  Europe, 
and  the  discovery  of  America.  Go  back  a  little  further, 
America  could  not  have  been  discovered,  if  there  had  not 
risen,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  a  nameless  and  aimless 
passion  among  maritime  nations  for  discoveries.  The 
passion  would  not  have  taken  hold  upon  intelligent  men, 
if  the  sciences,  especially  mathematics  and  astronomy,  had 
not  been  previously  improved,  and  together  with  the  as- 
trolab  applied  to  navigation.  These  improvements  were 
caused  by  Moors  and  Jews.  It  is  all  one  chain  of  cause  and 
effect,  and  the  last  effect,  as  now  my  speaking  to  you, must 
have  been  contained  potentially  in  the  very  first  cause  and 
in  every  following  effect,  which  in  its  turn  again  became  a 
cause;  and  every  state  of  society  between  the  two  ends,  at 
every  time  and  locality,  was  a  final  cause,  a  teleological 
center.  As  little,  indeed,  as  the  artizans  could  have 
erected  the  two  different  buildings  from  the  two  piles  of 
stone,  if  the  previous  and  efficient  causes  had  not  been 


136  THE  COSMIC  aoD. 

embodied  therein,  intentionally  and  premeditated;  so  lit- 
tle could  I  now  apeak  before  you  here,  as  I  do  if  those 
numerous  efficient  causes  had  not  preceded  this  final  cause, 
or  if  it  had  not  been  contained  in  all  its  efficient  causes. 
It  is  a  causalnexus,  therefore  it  is  teleological  center. 

Therefore,  in  our  day,  no  philosophical  historiographer 
writes  history  otherwise  than  on  the  teleological  principle, 
which  the  G-ermans  call  pragmatisch;  because  history  as 
a  chaos  of  disconnected  events  like  bubbles  on  the  sur- 
face of  a  boiling  ocean  of  chance  and  casualty,  always 
bursting  to  give  way  to  new  bubbles,  is  as  unintelligible 
as  indifferentiated  matter  in  its  zero  state  with  no  forces 
moving  and  shaping  it.  The  great  object  of  the  student 
of  history  is  to  know  the  facts  correctly  and  in  their  tel- 
eological connection  with  the  whole  structure  of  history. 

Well  then,  if  history  is  teleological,  and  its  progress  de- 
pends not  on  brain  dispositions  and  improved  nerves  by 
descendency,  then  it  is  actualized  mind,  human,  extra- 
human,  or  both. 

It  has  been  affirmed  in  a  previous  lecture,  that  history 
contains  the  monuments  of  actualized  human  mind.  Al- 
though man  is  not  absolutely  free,  as  he  is  no  absolute 
being,  still  he  is  free  to  a  certain  extent,  as  we  know  both 
empirically  and  a  priori.  Every  being  in  nature  is  free, 
as  long  as  it  exists  in  harmony  with  its  inherent  laws  and 
without  disturbance  from  abroad.  Eveiy  organic  being, 
we  have  seen,  manifests  will,  intellect  and  freedom.  With 
his  will,  intellect,  and  freedom,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
man  makes  history,  i.  e.,  he  seizes,  in  evevy  generation  and 
clime,  the  opportunities  and  advantages  before  him,  adds 
to  them  his  experiences  and  inventions  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  himself,  his  fellow-man,  and  posterity.  It  is 
man's  exclusive  privilege  to  make  history,  because  he 
and  he  only  connects  in  his  mind  past,  present  and  fu- 
ture; only  he  feels  the  necessity  of  improving,  because  ho 
alone  is  idealistic;  and  the  desire  of  benefiting  others  liv- 
ing with  or  after  him,  because  he  alone  is  a  moral  being. 
His  selfishness  can  not  overcome  entirel}''  his  ideality  and 
moral  nature,  and  the  social  structure  is  so,  that  the  hap- 
piness of  the  individual,  to  a  great  extent,  depends  on  the 
well-being  of  society.  All  this  is  certainly  true  in  gen- 
eral, although  the  rule  is  subject  to  numerous  exceptions. 

But  having  admitted  already  the  law  of  causality,  it 
must  also  be  admitted  that  man  can  not  make  history  by 
his  will  and  intellect  exclusively;  he  must  be  in  harmony 
with  that  law  which  is  superior  to  man's  will  and 
intellect,  as  the  whole  is  superior  to  any  of  its  parts.     The 


SUPERHUMAN   WILL   AND   INTELLECT  IN   HISTORY.      137 

human  family  consists  of  individuals,  and  not  of  an  in- 
differentiated  or  consolidated  body;  hence  mankind  is  sub- 
ject to  that  law,  as  well  as  every  individual,  with  the  free- 
dom of  regarding  or  disregarding  that  law.  Therefore, 
in  the  whole  course  of  history,  as  in  the  whole  process  of 
nature,  there  is  universal  necessity  and  individual  free- 
•dom.  If  thousands,  or  nations  rebel  against  the  law,  they 
must  stand  the  consequences;  but  other  thousands  and 
other  nations  will  obey  it  and  reap  its  benefits.  The  mys- 
tery of  successful  statesmanship  and  prophecy  is  honesty 
of  purpose,  a  thorough  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  this 
law.  This  law  of  causality  in  history  is  certainly  extra- 
human.     Organic  nature  offers  the  following  analogy: 

Every  egg  of  every  fish,  and  every  seed  ot  every  plant, 
possesses  the  inherent  will  to  become  an  organic  being  of 
its  own  kind,  and  must  become  one,  if  left  to  its  inherent 
law  and  will.  But  there  is  an  extra-organic  law  which, 
as  it  regulates  the  equal  proportion  of  male  and  female 
births,  or  the  increased  birth  of  sound  and  strong  male 
.•children  after  wars  and  epidemics,  or  the  regular  pro- 
gression of  births  and  deaths  in  the  various  generations, 
also  regulates  the  proportional  increase  of  fish  and  plant 
of  each  kind  in  the  natural  state,  that  there  exist  so  ma- 
ny, no  more  and  no  less,  at  any  given  time  and  locality. 
The  numerous  eggs  and  seeds  are  necessary  to  reach  that 
■end  surely,  all  destructive  agencies  otherwise  necessary 
taken  into  consideration.  Without  the  will  of  the  fish- 
egg  there  can  be  no  fish,  nor  can  there  be  one  contrary  to 
that  extraorganic  law.  So  man's  will,  though  free,  is  sub- 
ject to  that  extra-human  will  of  causality,  as  far  as  his- 
tory is  concerned.  Let  us  call  this  law  the  Logos  of  His- 
tory, and  ascertain  its  general  principles. 

There  is  perpetual  progression  in  history  from  lower  to 
higher  conditions,  exactly  as  in  this  earth's  creation. — 
There  are  breaks,  violent  catastrophes  and  eruptions  in 
the  earth's  crust,  and  there  are  also  in  history  apparently 
illogical,  bloody,  and  disturbing  eruptions,  cessations  and 
retrogressions,  momentarily  and  locally;  but  in  the  to- 
tality of  history,  the  progression  from  lower  to  higher 
conditions  is  perpetual,  incessant,  and  logical.  Yet  hu- 
man nature  is  the  same  forever  in  all  its  fundamental 
qualities.  Our  modern  Anglo-Franco-German  thinkers 
certainly  stand  no  higher  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  than, 
the  Hebrew  prophets  of  old.  Our  reasoning  powers  sur- 
pass not  the  men  of  ancient  Greece  or  Rome.  The  ideals 
of  art  are  no  loftier  now  than  they  were  in  classical  ages. 
Not  in  quality,  but  in  quantity,  of  experience  and  inven- 


138  TUB  COSMIC  GOD. 

tions,  utilized,  generalized,  and  popularized,  the  progress- 
ion of  history  is  manifested.  The  child  now  is  precisely 
the  same  as  were  those  born  when  the  Egpptian  pyra- 
mids were  erected.  Now  it  sees,  hears,  and  learns  more 
than  it  could  then;  the  material  increased  and  spread,  the 
methods  and  facilities  of  instruction  have  been  improved. 
Take  twin  brothers  to-day,  place  one  in  a  metropolis  and 
the  other  in  a  solitary  farm  house,  and  you  will  see  at 
once  the  whole  difference. 

Mankind  not  progressive  in  quality,  and  still  the  pro- 
gression in  history  steady,  the  principle  of  progression 
must  be  extra  human,  and  the  first  general  principle  of 
the  Logos  of  History  must  be:  It  preserves,  utilizes,  and 
promulgates  all  that  is  good,  true  and  useful,  and  neu- 
tralizes all  that  is  wicked,  false  and  useless  or  nugatory;, 
exactly  as  the  extra-organic  will  and  intellect  works  in 
the  organic  kingdoms.     Let  us  cast  a  glance  upon  history. 

Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians  oppressed  and  enslaved  the 
Hebrews,  who  possessed  traditionally  certain  ethical 
truths.  The  consequence  is  the  departure  from  Egypt, 
the  legislation  in  the  wilderness,  the  establishment  of  a 
new  civilization  in  Canaan,  the  rise  of  the  prophets,  the 
promulgation  of  monotheism  and  its  ethics,  powerful  le- 
vers in  the  world's  civilzation.  The  Egyptians  opposed 
all  this;  the  Hebrews  were  against  it,  the  Logos  of  His- 
tory preserved  and  prompted,  shaped  and  directed,  and 
Moses  had  a  perfect  right  to  say  God  had  sent  him. 

Alexander  crossed  the  Hellespont  to  subjugate  Asia  to- 
the, Macedonian  scepter,  and  died  in  Babylon  a  young  man; 
his  whole  family  vanish;  Western  Asia  is  the  heir  of  Gre- 
cian literature  and  science,  a  new  civilization  springs  up, 
and  Egypt  under  her  Ptolemeys  becomes  again  the  cen- 
ter of  culture,  to  give  rise  to  a  new  phase  in  the  world's 
history,  which  neither  Greek  nor  Barbarian  designed  or 
wanted,  and  the  Logos  of  History  turns  evil  into  good  to 
preserve,  and  to  progress. 

A  mad  king  of  Syria,  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  in  need  of 
much  money  and  good  sense,  determines  upon  apostatis- 
ing the  few  millions  of  Jews  in  Palestine.  The  rebellion 
follows,  ends  with  an  independent  government  under  the 
Maccabean  princes;  and  decides  forever  the  superiority  ot 
the  Hebrew  monotheism  and  ethics  over  Greco-Roman 
speculation  and  mythology.  Pompey  and  his  host  med- 
dle into  the  affairs  of  the  Jews,  two  centuries  of  incessant 
combat  ensue,  which  brings  the  Jews  into  Italy,  Spain, 
France,  Germany,  and  also  to  the  East,  and  with  them 
comes  the  death  of  Heathenism  in  Europe,  Arabia,  and 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   HISTORY,       13^ 

Perflia.  Eome  subjects  Jerusalem  and  loses  her  gods. — 
Every  step  in  the  process  is  extra-human,  although  all 
done  by  men. 

But  we  need  not  go  back  so  far;  the  illustration  is  right 
before  us.  If  the  queen  of  Spain  in  1492  could  have 
guessed  the  consequences  of  the  voyage  by  Columbus, 
that  he  would  discover  a  new  world,  where  the  coffin 
should  be  made  for  all  crowns  and  scepters,  America 
would  not  have  been  discovered.  If  the  clergy  of  those 
days  had  supposed  that  this  would  be  the  land  of  relig- 
ious liberty,  free  thought  and  free  speech,  no  human  be- 
ing would  have  been  permitted  to  leave  Europe  and  seek 
these  shores.  They  can  not  accuse  any  man  or  any  body 
of  men  in  particular  to  have  been  guilty  of  making  this 
new  world  a  new  starting  point  in  history,  to  revolution- 
ize all  former  conceptions  of  public  government,  social  and 
political  rights  and  jjrivileges,  classes  and  divisions;  to 
change  the  entire  status  of  labor  and  the  laboring  man  by 
new  conceptions  and  inventions.  It  is  all  one  chain  of 
teleological  events,  conducted  by  the  Logos  of  History,  to 
find  its  conceivable  final  cause  in  the  universal  and  dem- 
ocratic republic. 

Take  another  side  of  the  picture.  If  Pius  IX.,  had 
known  in  1848  that  his  siding  with  the  so-called  legiti- 
mate princes,  the  despots  of  Europe  and  their  tools,  whea 
the  spirit  of  revolution  like  a  hurricane  swept  over  the 
continent,  would  cost  him  his  temporal  power  only  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  thereafter,  and  could  have  convinced  him- 
self that  the  two  dogmas  of  immaculate  conception  and 
infallibility,  and  the  forcible  acquisition  of  the  boy  Mor- 
tara  for  the  Church,  would  estrange  so  many  hearts  from 
the  Church  and  embitter  so  many  thousands  against  her 
dominion, — no  kaiser  and  no  Bismarck,  no  Victor  Eman- 
uel and  no  Garibaldi,  could  have  dethroned  him,  united 
Italy,  or  broken  down  the  power  of  the  Jesuits. 

Again,  if  the  then  three  kaisers  of  Europe  could  have 
thought  that  the  late  German-French  war  would  build  up 
the  French  republic,  which  if  granted  two  decades  of 
peace  will  necessarily  republicanize  Europe  to  the  very 
gates  of  Constantinople  and  St,  Petersburg, — the  war 
would  not  have  been  waged,  and  a  Napoleon  would  still 
play  comedy  in  France.  You  see,  no  Bismarck,  no  kaiser, 
no  Pope,  nor  any  body  else,  has  brought  about  those  re- 
markable changes  in  history  which  transpired  in  our  very 
days  and  under  our  eyes,  as  it  were.  It  is  all  extra-human; 
it  is  the  Logos  of  History  that  rights  the  wrongs,  turns- 
the  course  of  events  in  favor  of  progression  in  spite  of  all 
the  wickedness  of  rulers  or  nations,  preserves  the  ele- 


140  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

ments  of  truth,  goodness,  and  usefulness,  to  be  shaped  in 
new  events,  and  neutralizes  falsehoods,  wickedness,  all 
that  is  useless  or  nugatory. 

So  in  all  ages  of  history  large  masses  were  blindly 
moved  by  an  invisible  power,  to  achieve  worthless  pur- 
poses in  barbarous  and  bloody  wars  and  rebellions;  but 
the  Logos  of  History  always  utilized  the  human  blood  and 
misery  for  the  cause  of  progression.  Great  men,  like 
King  Saul,  were  troubled  with  evil  spirits,  committed  un- 
pardonable follies  and  barbarous  outrages;  the  Logos  of 
Histor}''  sends  those  actors  to  oblivion,  renders  their  work 
harmless,  and  turns  it  round  for  the  benefit  of  progress- 
ive humanity.  Mephistopheles  himself,  who  always  wills 
the  bad,  must  serve  good  purposes.  In  the  grand  drama 
of  history  there  is  no  evil;  and  also  in'this  particular  point 
history  is  identical  with  the  great  household  of  nature. 
There  is  no  devil. 

But  it  is  time  for  me  to  close.  I  can  not  finish  my  sub- 
ject iu  one  lecture.    I  propose  to  complete  it  in  my  next. 


SUPIRHUMAN  WILL  AND  INTILLBCT  IN  HISTOET.         141 


LECTURE  XVIII. 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL  AND  INTELLECT  IN  HISTORY 
CONCLUDED. 


Ladies  and  Gtentlemen. — The  Logos  of  History  mani- 
fests its  extra-human  existence  also  in  the  inevitable  pun- 
ishment of  national  sins.  As  nature,  everywhere  and  in- 
exorably, puijishes  every  transgression  against  the  physi- 
cal laws,  so  the  Logos  of  History  dispenses  just  retribu- 
tion for  national  misdeeds.  The  words  of  Isaiah  might  be- 
written  upon  every  public  building:  "If  j'^e  be  willing  and 
obedient,  ye  sh^U  eat  the  good  of  the  land,  but  if  ye  re- 
fuse and  rebel,  ye  shall  be  devoured  with  the  sword;  for 
the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it." 

From  the  distant  Orient,  the  terrible  goddess  whose 
name  is  Nemesis,  came  to  the  Greeks  who  worshiped  her 
with  awe;  and  the  Eomans  erected  her  a  temple  in  the 
capitol  among  the  superior  gods.  What  Isaiah  expressed 
in  intelligible  words,  mythology  represented  by  the  sym- 
bolic goddess;  the  principle  of  retribution  and  retaliation, 
enforced  by  an  invisible  power,  is  the  foundation  of  both 
and  deeply  seated  in  the  consciousness  of  all  nations  and 
tribes.  The  Pagan  Jethro  said  to  Moses:  "Now  I  know 
that  Jehovah  is  greater  than  all  the  gods;  for  the  very 
thing  which  they  used  wickedly  came  upon  them,"  (the 
Egyptians,  as  a  retribution.) 

It  is  not  as  clearly  manifested  in  the  life  of  the  individ- 
ual, and  may  not  be  enforced  as  rigidly;  but  nations,  his- 
tory and  consciousness  agree,  live,  grow,  and  flourish  on 
their  virtues;  suffer,  decline,  or  perish  of  their  vices,  and 
all  that  by  agencies  perfectly  natural,  though  controlled 
by  super-human  causes. 

The  Bible  and  the  history  of  Israel  are  full  not  only  of 
the  moBt;terrible  warnings  to  this  effect,  but  also  of  tell- 
ing facta  in  corroboration  of  this  doctrine.  The  student 
of  ancient  history  knows  full  well,  how  mighty  empires 
forced  together  by  the  sword,  established  in  blood,  and 


142  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

held  under  the  subjection  of  terror,  were  crushed  under 
their  own  terrible  weight,  by  an  invisible  power  mightier- 
then  despots,  heroes  and  armies.  Awe  inspiring  ruins  of 
impregnable  castles,  proud,  wealthy,  and  populous  mctrop- 
oles  tell  the  tale  of  Nemesis'  inexorable  execution.  Be- 
gotten in  bloody  wrongs,  fed  by  injustice,  and  nourished 
with  human  blood  and  tears,  they  fell  fat  victims  of  ra- 
cing vices.  So  ended  Assyria,  Babylonia,  and  Medo-Per- 
sia;  so  perished  the  Roman  Empire,  and  in  the  beginning 
of  this  century  also  its  successor,  the  Germanic  empire. 

Look  for  a  moment  at  old  Germany  with  her  outrageous 
crimes,  committed  for  centuries  on  burgher,  peasant,  Jew, 
bondsman,  and  foreigner,  all  of  whom  were  mere  sheep, 
cheap  commodities,  marching  chatties,  worthless  trinkets, 
superfluous  dregs,  filling  space  for  the  special  benefit  of 
so-called  noble-men,  priests,  soldiers,  and  their  task-mas- 
ters called  public  officers  and  executioners;  committed  al- 
so on  Italy,  Spain,  the  Netherlands,  Polaijd,  and  other 
Sclavonic  countries  trampled  down  by  German  armies. — 
Xiook  upon  her  history  and  you  will  find,  how  her  sons 
were  slain  by  the  millions,  first  in  the  internal  feuds  of 
knightly  ruffians,  and  in  the  various,  bjoody  crusades, 
then  in  Italy,  Turkey,  Spain,  ^France,  and  the  Nether- 
lands, next  in  Fratricidal  rebellions,  the  Thirty  and  Seven 
years  wars;  so  that  she  was  at  no  time  without  war,  till 
iit  the  beginning  of  this  centurj'^  she  fell  down  dead  at  the 
feet  of  Napoleon  and  France,  dead  from  crime  and  ex- 
haustion, and  there  laid  for  nearly  seventy  years  a  help- 
Jess  giant,  a  byword  among  nations,  trampeled  upon  by  a 
thousand  petulant  despots,  ridiculed  and  despised  by  Met- 
ternich  and  Nesselrode  first,  by  Napoleon  and  Cavour 
then.  Strange  analogy!  Like  the  Hebrews  of  old,  Ger- 
many had  her  seventy  years  captivity,  to  expiate  her  na- 
tional sins,  and  to  send  forth  into  the  world  her  sons, 
bearers  of  ideas  shipwrecked  at  home,  under  the  blind 
captaincy  of  mad  despots. 

Next  in  crime  and  retribution,  among  the  modern 
nations,  is  certainly  France  which,  since  the  closing  de- 
cade of  the  last  century  has  been  expiating  her  enormous 
sins  by  currents  of  blood.  And  next  to  her,  only  in  crime 
more  atrocious  and  in  vice  more  hideous,  is  awful  Spain, 
whose  sins  are  as  old  as  her  history,  and  as  grievious  as 
those  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.  Every  inch  of  her  soil  is 
drenched  with  innocent  blood,  and  her  atmosphere  is  ripe 
with  the  sighs  and  groans  of  human  beings  who  expired 
under  diabolic  tortures.  In  the  Netherlands  and  the 
West  Indies,  in  Mexico,  and  Peru,  in  Naples  and  Sicily, 


8UPERHUJIAN   WILL   AND   INTELLECT  IN   HISTORY.      143 

«he  has  insatiably  swallowed  human  gore  and  destroyed 
human  happiness.  Behold  now,  how  she  wades  and  swims 
in  her  own  blood,  how  her  sons  exterminate  one  another, 
and  yet  there  is  no  peace  to  the  wicked.  So  the  Logos  of 
History  avenges  the  outrages  committed  by  nations  and, 
although  long  sulfering,  surely  visits  the  iniquities  of  pa- 
rents on  children  and  children's  children  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  of  those  who  abide  in  wickedness. 

But  we  need  not  go  so  far  to  conceive  evident  manifes- 
tations of  the  Logos  of  History  punishing  national  sins. 
Up  to  the  year  ISiO  the  people  of  these  United  States  liv- 
ed on  the  virtues  and  wisdom  of  its  sires.  Then  it  began 
to  grow  fat  and  to  kick.  Its  first  crime  was  going  to  war 
with  Mexico.  War  is  always  a  crime,  for  one  party  must 
be  in  the  wrong,  most  usually  both  are.  The  principle  of 
settling  difficulties  by  war  is  in  itself  a  crime.  War  of 
conquest  is  a  barbarous  crime  on  humanity,  every  life 
sacrificed  is  willful  and  malicious  murder  on  the  record  of 
a  nation.  War  of  a  republic  against  a  sister  republic  is 
the  extreme  of  all  national  crimes.  And  yet  the  United 
States  waged  war  upon  the  Eepublic  of  Mexico,  which 
ended  with  the  annexation  of  California  and  New  Mexico. 

Please,  look  upon  the  consequences.  Gold,  plenty  of 
gold  and  silver  were  found  in  the  annexed  territory,  more 
than  in  all  central  Europe;  but  we  have  a  depreciated  pa- 
per currency,  and  the  precious  metal  disappears  myste- 
riously under  our  hands.  We  owe  more  money  in  Eu- 
rope than  any  nation  ever  did  outside  of  its  boundaries. 
We  are  the  richest  and  poorest  people  in  the  world.  We 
have  plenty  of  the  precious  metals,  but  for  the  last  fifteen 
years  none  for  our  own  use;  and  the  interest  we  pay  to 
foreign  purses  consumes  the  fat  of  the  land  and  makes  the 
heaviest  tribute  ever  paid  by  any  vanquished  nation.  Be- 
fore we  had  all  that  precious  metal,  we  had  a  few  less 
millionaires  in  this  country,  but  many,  many  less  pover- 
ty stricken  persons  and  beggars,  less  corruption,  and  less 
crime  in  proportion.  The  increase  of  the  precious  met- 
als, however  vast  and  out  of  all  proportion,  has  done  us 
no  good.  It  is  ill-gotten  wealth,  ft  is  the  fruit  of  a  nation- 
al crime.  The  Logos  of  History  avenges  the  wrong,  and 
threatens  to  sacrifice  the  liberties  of  this  people  to  a  few 
millionaires  and  avaricious  hirelings. 

Yes,  Mexico  was  conquered  and  we  triumphed.  But 
the  infatuation  was  still  on  our  brains,  when  lo,  the  threat- 
ening demon  of  dissension  with  its  flaming  torch,  in  the 
year  1849,  set  the  whole  country  on  fire  which  burnt  on 
And  on  until  the  conflagration  of  the  great  rebellion  threat- 


144  TUB  COSMIC  GOD. 

ei^ed  to  consume  the  whole  land.  Over  the  acquired 
territory,  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union,  the 
dissension  broke  out,  the  balance  of  power  among  the 
States  was  thus  disturbed,  and  the  quarrel  ceased  no  more. 
Now  loomed  up  the  old  sin,  slavery,  and  together  with 
the  new  one  filled  the  measure  of  iniquity  to  the  brim; 
the  Logos  of  History  appeared  as  the  A^emesis  of  retribu- 
tion, and  behold  the  ten  thousands  of  victims,  to  exipate 
for  our  national  crimes. 

How  wonderful,  how  marvelous!  "While  we  expiated 
our  sins  by  our  blood,  the  Pi-ench  invaded  Mexico  to 
strangle  the  republic  (this  was  the  beginning  of  Napo- 
leons end  and  Bazaine's  shame);  and  we  were  offered  the 
opportunity  of  making  atonement  to  Mexico.  William  H. 
Seward,  who  manceuvered  three  emperors  out  of  this  con- 
tinent, did  make  that  atonement,  and  assisted  in  the  res- 
toration of  the  Mexican  republic.  So  that  debt  was  can- 
celed. But  among  us  at  home  the  offended  Logos  of  His- 
tory is  not  appeased  yet.  Corruption  in  high  places,  an 
insatiable  avarice  among  public  men,  public  robbery  in 
all  shapes  and  forms,  the  dominion  of  ignorant  masses 
over  the  intelligent  in  many  States,  the  consequent  op- 
pression and  military  dictation,  financial  ruination  and 
despondency  in  private  circles,  the  heaviest  burdens  of 
taxes  ever  paid  by  a  people,  are  only  a  few  of  the  con- 
sequences under  which  we  groan  now.  But  I  need  not 
produce  any  more  to* convince  impartial  men  how,  before 
and  under  our  very  eyes,  the  Logos  of  History  manifests 
its  extra-human  existence  and  activity  by  the  inevitable 
punishment  of  national  sins.  True,  the  means  are  all  hu- 
man, all  natural  as  cause  and  effect;  but  the  first  cause 
which  employs  those  means  to  reach  these  ends,  and 
shapes  all  teleologically  to  produce  these  final  causes,  is 
certainly  extra-human. 

The  sure  punishment  of  national  sins  can  not  be  denied, 
as  history  and  the  consciousness  of  man  speak  too  londly 
thereof.  No  nation  inflicts  wilfully  a  punishment  upon 
itself,  and  yet  it  comes.  It  comes  without  any  man's  de- 
sign or  intention.  It  comes  by  a  teleological  arrange- 
ment of  events  of  particular  fitness.  Therefore  it  must 
come  from  the  extra-human  Logos  of  History,  which  as 
far  as  nations  are  concerned,  is  certainly  sovereign  and 
immutable  justice. 

''Die  Weltgeschichte  ist  das  Weltgericht" — In  the  world's 
history  is  the  world's  judgment  day. 

The  n6xt  phenomenon  in  which  the  Logos  of  History 
manifests  itself  is  most  extraordinary;  its  name  is  Genius. 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   HISTORY.      145 

The  existence  of  genius  and  its  appearance  at  the  right 
place  and  time  is  as  mysterious  as  the  center  of  the  uni- 
verse. Genius  is  the  superior  spontaneity  of  the  mind  in 
productive  and  executive  powers.  It  conceives,  not  by 
an  act  of  volition  or  tiresome  reflection,  but  freely,  gen- 
erously, and  unsolicited;  it  conceives  finished  and  com- 
plete thoughts,  schemes,  designs  or  images  of  universal 
truth,  irresistible  impulses  to  execute  or  realize,  utter  and 
promulgate.  All  this  comes  like  a  flash  of  lightning,  un- 
awares and  not  expected,  in  words,  symbols,  visions,  or 
finished  thoughts.  The  ancient  Hebrews  called  it  Ruach 
hak-kodesh,  "a  holy  spirit,"  and  modern  language  names 
it  Genius. 

Talent  is  not  genius.  Talent  discovers,  and  genius  in- 
vents. Talent  thoughtfully  connects,  combines,  and 
unites;  the  work  of  genius  springs  forth  from  the  mind  in 
one  solid  cast,  like  Minerva  from  the  brain  of  Jupiter, 
complete  and  harmonious.  Talent  trims  its  productions 
for  the  public  mart,  and  modifies  them  to  suit  its  customers; 
it  depends  on  outward  circumstances.  Genius  is  inconsid- 
erate, self-relying,  and,  like  unconscious  beauty,  without 
any  intention  to  please.  Talent  wills,  and  genius  must: 
it  is  an  internal  necessity.  Talent  is  local,  genius  univer* 
sal.  Talents  are  acquired,  and  genius  is  inborn.  The 
ancient  Hebrews  looked  upon  the  men  of  genius  as  spec- 
ial messengers  from  on  high;  therefore  the  Psalmist  sings: 
"Ye  shall  not  touch  my  Messiahs,  not  mal -treat  my  pro- 
phets," which  is  recast  in  the  New  Testament  thus;  "A  sin 
against  the  holy  ghost  will  not  be  forgiven."  (with  spec- 
ial reference  to  Deut.,  xviii.  18,  19.) 

Wherever  genius  is  placed  it  manifests  itself  by  break- 
ing through  the  crystalized  forms,  and  pouring  forth  now 
creations  of  the  mind,  and  is  therefore,  the  cause  of  all- 
progressions  in  history.  It  is  the  same  genius  under  all 
circumstances,  although  its  peculiar  manifestations  al- 
ways depend  on  outer  circumstances.  It  is  the  same  gen- 
ius, whether  among  peasants  or  mechanics,  students  or 
poets,  painters,  sculptors  or  architects,  in  the  army,  in 
the  legislature  or  executive  council  of  a  nation,  in  a  school- 
master's chair  or  a  composer's  study.  Its  peculiar  mani- 
festations only  depend  on  outward  circumstances  to  throw 
it  upon  this  or  that  department  of  human  activity;  but  it 
will  show  every  where  its  inventive  force  and  the  univer- 
sality of  its  character.  It  is  the  highest  diff'erentiation  of 
the  vital  force.  The  same  genius  which  became  a  proph- 
et in  Israel,  because  the  nation's  general  turn  of  mind  wa& 
religious  ethical,  might  have  become  an  apostle  of  the  fine 
10 


146  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

arts,  or  formal  philosophy  in  Greece,  or  become  a  great 
statesman  or  soldier  in  Kome,  a  prominent  legislator  in 
'  England,  or  a  successful  inventor  in  thiscountry;  simply  by 
the  change  of  external  elements  giving  direction  to  gen 
ius,  which  remains  the  same  genius  under  all  influences, 

Genius  is  not  inherited.  All  the  great  geniuses  whose 
names  history  gratefully  recorded,  stood  alone,  without  a 
duplicate  in  their  respective  genealogies.  "We  know  next 
to  nothingk)f  the  ancestors  or  descendents  of  Moses,  Isaiah, 
Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Homer  ^schylus,  Sophocles, 
Shakspeare,  Raphael,  Correggio,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  or 
Hirshel  and  Fraucnhof.  The  son  of  Solomon  was  a  fool,* 
and  the  son  of  Schiller  is  a  rough  hunter.  Spinoza,  Leib- 
nitz, Newton,  Kant,  and  George  Washington  died  child- 
less. Dante,  Tasso,  Milton,  Eacine,  Lessing,  and  Goethe 
left  no  scion  like  them;  Csesar,  Napoleon,  like  Cyrus  and 
Alexander,  left  no  heir  of  genius  behind.  Genius  is  a  spec- 
ial commission  from  the  Logos  of  History  to  advance  the 
human  family  to  higher  conditions  of  existence. 

Most  every  genius  works  against  his  own  will  and  in- 
terests; ninety-nine  out  of  each  hundred  are  unhappy  and 
dissatisfied — many  miserable,  wretched.  They  feel  keen- 
er, love  profounder,  know  better,  hope  and  scheme  loft- 
ier, expect  more,  are  disappointed  and  mortified  more  fre- 
quently, find  less  pleasure  in  carnal  enjoyments  than  the 
generality  of  people.  In  consequence  of  their  creative 
powers  they  are  always  at  war  with  existing  and  stereo- 
typed forms  and  institutions,  consequently  in  perpetual 
conflict  with  the  conservative  element  and  selfish  motives. 
But  there  is  in  genius  that  irresistible  force;  it  must — it 
must  pour  out  the  truth  conceived,  the  beauty  felt,  the 
goodness  admired,  careless  of  all  consequences.  There- 
fore the  ten  thousand  martyrs  in  all  departments  of  men- 
tal and  moral  creations  whose  places  in  history,  marked 
red  with  blood  and  tears,  are  awfully  sublime. 

And  yet  if  it  were  not  for  the  large  conservative  ele-  • 
ment,  there  could  be  no  order,  no  stability,  at  any  time; 
the  human  family,  so  to  say,  could  not  digest  and  assimi- 
late the  food  offered  to  the  public  stomach.  And  yet,  if 
it  were  not  for  those  poor,  visionary,  and  eccentric  vic- 
tims, those  dreaming  idealists,  the  men  of  genius,  press- 
ing onward  and  forward,  society  would  stagnate,  congeal, 
crystalize  or  petrify;  progress  would  be  impossible  and 
civilization  a  farce  on  the  African  pattern.  Genius  is  the 
leaven  in  the  chaos  of  humanity,  the  mighty  lever  to  roll 
on  the  inert,  plump,  and  helpless  ball. 

And  yet  genius  is  wanting  nowhere,  when  needed,- 


SUPERHUMAN  WILL   AND   INTELLECT   IN   HISTORY.      147 

Every  great  time  begets  its  great  men,  every  great  cause 
its  inspired  apostles.  They  rise,  as  it  were,  from  the  at- 
mosphere of  the  generation  which  requires  their  energies. 
When  the  oppression  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt  had  reach- 
ed an  intolerable  degree,  Moses  was  a  man  already,  prepar- 
ed to  redeem  them.  In  a  wonderful  manner,  none  can 
account  for  it,  the  18th  century  brought  forth  a  mighty 
phalanx  of  brilliant  geniuses,  warriors,  statesmen,  poets, 
authors,  composers,  philosophers,  scientists,  and  an  un- 
conscious passion  for  freedom  and  progression  seized  \ip- 
on  multitudes,  to  open  widely  the  flood-gates  of  intelli- 
gence, to  pour  in  its  currents  upon  the  19th  century,  the 
age  of  radical  revolution,  where  the  lowest  rapidly  be- 
comes the  highest,  and  the  highest  sinks  down  lowest,  to 
i-ejuvenate  the  human  family. 

And  now  reason  comes  in  and  asks,  by  whom  is  this 
marvelous  and  harmonious  arrangement  made?  In  the 
'Case  of  genius,  we  have  evidently  before  us  the  same  uni- 
versal law  which  governs  the  organic  world.  Plenty  of 
geniuses  are  perpetually  born,  and  all  are  at  work  some- 
how and  somewhere,  so  that,  all  destructive  agencies  oth- 
erwise necessary  taken  into  consideration,  there  must  ap- 
pear the  right  man  in  tbe  right  place,  where  the  Logos 
of  History  wants  him,  to  shine  forth  in  his  pristine  glory, 
and  do  the  pre-ordained  work.  The  other  men  of  genius, 
like  the  superfluous  fish-egg,  also  perform  a  task;  it  takes 
many  hands  to  build  a  city.  Here  we  have  before  us  an 
extra-human  agency. 

The  law  of  history  is  progressive,  and  man  not  only  re- 
mains in  quality  always  the  same,  but  the  vast  majority 
as  conservative  and  opposed  to  every  progressive  step. — 
Yet  history  preserves  all  that  is  good,  true,  and  useful, 
continually  increases  its  stock,  spreads,  utilizes  &nd  pro- 
mulgates it,  contrary  to  the  will  of  the  masses,  and  in 
spite  of  all  egotism  and  prevailing  stupidity.  Again  in 
spite  of  all,  whatever  is  false,  erroneous,  wicked,  nugatory, 
or  useless  is  overcome  in  history,  by  the  very  errors  and 
blunders  of  great  men  and  great  nations;  by  the  indomit- 
able and  irresistable  Nemesis  with  all  her  mysterious  tu- 
ries,  making  war  upon  all  corruption  and  degradation, 
and  hurling  continually  the  nugatory  element  and  its 
creatures  into  oblivion.  In  spite,  I  repeat,  in  spite  of  all 
conservatism  and  egotism,  genius  rises  always  and  every- 
where, to  be  on  hand  at  the  proper  time  and  place,  to  be- 
get the  grand  wealth  of  new  truths,  to  press  onward  and 
forward  the  inert  bulk  of  humanity,  tears  or  smiles,  love 
or  hatred,  lakes  of  blood  or  streams  of  milk  and  honey. 


148  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

triumpli  or  defeat,  praise  or  scorn,  crowns  or  gallows,  it 
matters  not  to  genius,  it  sacrifices  itself  against  its  own 
will,  that  then  from  its  very  blood,  armed  and  buckled 
champions  of  the  new  ideas  rise,  to  grasp  the  banner  trod- 
den in  the  dust,  and  unfurl  it  again  for  victory  and  pro- 
gression; but  onward,  alwaj'S  onward  is  the  watchword. 

Andyetnoman  schemes  it,  none  does  it  with  forethought 
and  conscious  design,  it  is  all  contrary  to  human  will  and 
prediction,  still  done  by  human  agency.  Who  designs 
this  grand  and  marvelous  drama  of  history,  chooses  the 
actors,  shifts  the  scenes  and  conducts  its  execution,  if  man 
does  not  do,  not  will,  not  contemplate  it?  There  is  but 
one  answer  to  which  reason  is  necessitated;  and  this  is 
the  Logos  of  History  does  it  in  its  invisible,  silent  and  ev- 
er efficient  power,  and  this  Logos  of  History  is  not  oniy 
extra-human,  it  is  super -human,  becauses  it  designs 
shapes,  and  puts  into  execution  the  destinies  of  all  mcq 
and  all  generations,  it  presides  over  man,  and  all  must 
submit  to  its  laws. 

And  now  human  reason  turns  upon  gross  materialism 
and  says:  "Here  is  teleology  in  history,  to  deny  it  is  mad- 
ness. Here  is  end,  aim,  design,  purpose,  and  proper  ex- 
ecution, not  by  one  or  all  men,  but  independent  of  all. — 
There  must  be  will  and  intellect  extra-human,  superhu- 
man, universal  and  bound  to  no  organism.  It  is  identi- 
cal in  its  laws  with  the  extra-organic  will  and  intellect 
in  nature,  hence  both,  are  one  and  the  same  spiritual 
force.  All  your  construction  of  atoms  and  atomic  forces 
will  positively  not  account  for  the  existence  of  one  sen  - 
sation,  much  less  for  the  grand  drama  of  history;  and  the 
last  resort,  after  all,  is  the  existence  of  an  extra-mundane 
spirit,  as  far  as  matter  is  concerned,  which  is  no  more  un- 
knowable than  force  or  matter.  Whether  this  super- 
human life,  freedom,  will,  intellect,  and  justice,  universal 
and  differentiated  is  a  mere  force,  or  the  force  of  all  for- 
ces; whether  we  are  entitled  to  call  it  Nature's  God,  we^ 
will  investigate  in  our  next  lecture,  on  metaphysics. 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  149 


LECTURE    XIX. 


ON  METAPHYSICS. — I.  GOD  IN  NATUBI. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — In  eighteen  lectures  previous 
^o  this  we  have  been  guided  through  the  labyrinth  of 
nature  and  history  by  induction  solely  and  exclusively. 
"We  have  examined  facts  and  attempted  to  expound  them 
within  the  bounds  of  the  law  of  causality.  The  result  of 
this  investigation  was  unraveled  to  our  cognition,  wheels 
within  wheels  in  the  marvelous  mechanism  of  nature  and 
history;  facts  which  stand  behind  this  world  of  sensual 
realities  as  their  efficient  and  final  causes.  The  main 
fruit  of  our  researches  is  the  existence  and  substantiality 
of  a  force  in  nature  which  is  life,  freedom,  will,  and  in- 
tellect, and  also  government  and  justice  in  man's  history, 
universal  and  super-human.  Is  the  force  the  first  cause 
of  nature,  the  causa  sua?  Imagine  it  as  Kant's  intelligible 
world,  Hegel's  absolute  idea,  Schopenhauer's  will,  Hart- 
niann's  unconscious  will  and  intellect,  Volkert's  panlo- 
gism,  Venetianer's  panpsychism,  or  Mr.  Tyndal's  "  un- 
knowable,"  after  all  various  constructions  of  the  same 
substance ;  is  it  the  first  cause  ?  Is  it  the  unconditioned 
{Das  Unbedingte)  and  conditioning  {Das  Bedingende),  of 
which  all  objects  of  nature'  are  the  conditioned  {Das  Be- 
dingte)f  In  case  this  question  be  answered  in  the  affirm- 
ative, the  next  question  is,  what  do  we  and  can  we 
know  of  God,  nature,  man,  and  their  relations?  How 
do  we  explain  the  progression  of  history,  the  duties  of 
man,  and  the  final  cause  of  both  ?  These,  in  my  estima- 
tion, are  the  main  questions  of  metaphysics,  viz.,  the  na- 
ture of  the  cause  or  causes  which  exist,  figuratively 
spoken,  behind  physical  nature,  behind  the  mechanism  of 
this  cosmos  and  its  parts,  which  are  the  effects  thereof 

The  term  metaphysics  in  philosophy  is  of  accidental 
origin.  The  first  compiler  of  the  writings  of  Aristotle 
found  the  works  of  that   great  master  mind   divided  in 


150  THE   COSMIC   GCD. 

logic,  aesthetics,  and  physics,  and  piaced  last  of  all, 
hence  behind  physics  Aristotle's  principal  work,  and 
named  it,  therefore,  metaphysics.  Therefore,  the  province 
and  limits  of  metaphysics  have  been  variously  under- 
stood by  the  philosophers.     My  definition  is  my  own. 

In  metaphysics,  the  inductive  method  will  not  reach,  to 
ascertain  all  reason  is  capable  of  ascertaining.  Inasmuch 
as  metaphysics  undertakes  to  lift  up  the  veil  of  nature, 
and  to  expose  to  intelligence  that  which  is  behind  that 
veil  as  the  cause  of  causes,  the  inductive  method  will  do 
well;  but  where  it  begins  to  expound  the  nature  of  that 
cause,  which  is  no  sensual  object ;  there  are  the  limits  of 
the  law  of  causality,  Lence  also  of  induction  ;  there  the 
province  and  methods  of  pure  reason  begin,  and  nothing 
else  will  solve  that  problem  of  problems.  There  are  cer- 
tainly more  methods  of  cognition  than  philosophy  ex- 
pound and  science  applies.  Knowledge  precedes  science, 
and  cognition  is  prior  to  philosophy.  Mankind  knows 
vastly  more  than  science  and  philosophy  have  utilized  and 
systematized.  The  child  sucking  its  nutriment  performs 
mechanical  feats,  which  only  after  thousands  of  years 
science  began  to  construct.  The  entire  material  of  phil- 
osophy in  all  its  disciplines  consists  after  all  of  the  spon- 
taneous productions  of  the  mind.  Philosophy  discovered 
the  form,  it  invented  not  the  substance  of  its  contents. 

There  is  room  left  for  genius  to  carve  out  now  methods 
of  cognition.  Do  I  not  know  it  a  priori?  I  know  that 
there  is  a  God,  a  Providence,  and  an  immortality,  and  I 
know  it  as  sure  as  I  know  anything  ;  yet  iam  not  sup- 
erstitious, ignorant,  or  credulous  ;  I  know  all  the  methods 
of  cognition  and  evidence  in  philosophy  and  science  ; 
still  I  may  fail  in  convincing  others  of  the  correctness  of 
my  convictions,  simply  because  the  methods  of  cogni- 
tion and  evidence  are  not  exliausted. 

The  most  prominent  and  most  profound  metaphysicians 
in  history  are  the  Hebrews,  not  only  those  who  wrote 
the  Biblical  Books,  but  also  those  who  wrote  the  apocry- 
phal, profane,  and  rabbinical  works  between  300  years  be- 
fore and  300  after  the  Christian  Era, in  Palestine  and  Egypt; 
and  those  of  the  Moorish-Spanish  period  from  the  tenth 
to  the  fifteenth  centuries.  They  furnished  the  whole 
material,  which  metaphj^sicians  have  cast  into  the 
philosophical  form,  from  Aristotle  down  to  our  days. 
Take  away  the  Hebrew  material  from  metaphysics,  and 
what  is  left  of  it,  is  its  formal  portion,  into  which  soma 
indigestible  dogmas  are  artificially  pressed. 

And  now  returning  to  our  problem,  we  must  discuss, 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  151 

force  once  more.  The  forces  co-operate  in  producing 
teleological  centers.  Whatever  is  a  causalnexus  is  also  a 
teleological  center.  Whatever  object  of  nature  we  may 
examine  represents  a  number  of  forces  co-operating,  co- 
ordinate, sub-ordinate  or  both.  Take  for  instance  any 
piece  of  common  coal,  and  you  have  in  it  cohesion,  at- 
traction, gravitation,  heat  and  light  differentiated,  hence 
also  electricity  and  magnet.  These  forces  are  in  the  coal, 
imnmnent  and  permanent,  insulated  from  the  body  of  the 
universe,  and  bound  together  to  constitute  that  particu- 
lar object,  that  piece  of  coal. 

How  do  those  forces  meet  and  how  keep  together  to 
constitute  that  particular  object?  Only  one  of  the  three 
possibilities  will  explain  the  phenomenon  :  Either  the 
forces  bear  in  themselves,  by  affinity  or  attraction,  the 
converging  tendency  and  coherent  nature ;  -or  all  forces 
are  actually  but  one,  differently  modified  by  chemical 
causes ;  or  there  is  a  superior  and  governing  force, 
which  unites  and  keeps  bound  together  various  inferior 
forces,  to  constitute  and  sustain  intact  any  givenobject 
of  nature.  The  convergence  of  forces  is  impossible,  be- 
cause they  are  variously  connected  in  various  limited  ob- 
jects, to  the  exclusion  of  any  further  connection  with 
other  fbrces  or  more  force.  If  convergence  was  in  the 
nature  of  all  fbrces,  they  must  unite  indefinitely,  so  that 
there  could  be  ouly  one  kind  of  objects  with  the  same 
qualities  precisely,  and  all  matter  must  at  last  unite  to 
one  lump.  Besides,  death,  decay,  dissolution,  or  even  the 
transition  of  qualities  would  be  impossible  on  account  of 
the  constancy  of  force :  so  that  the  forces  once  united  to 
an  individual  object  must,  by  virtue  of  their  convergence, 
remain  forever  intact;  which  we  know  not  to  be  the 
case. 

If  we  admit  the  unity  or  correlation  of  forces  dema- 
terialized,  in  their  cosmic  state,  still  this  unity  of  forces 
exists  not  in  their  materialized  state,  in  the  objects  of 
nature;  for  we  can  expel  a  force  from  a.  body,  make  it 
cosmic,  and  the  other  or  others  remain  therein.  You  lay 
a  piece  of  magnetized  iron  in  the  fire  and  expel  the  mag- 
net, while  other  forces  remain  intact  in  the  iron.  Yoa 
stamp  a  rock  to  dust  and  expel  its  cohesion,  while  the 
other  forces  remain  in  the  material.  By  heat  or  elec- 
tricity you  reduce  a  solid  to  a  liquid  and  a  gas  finally, 
and  expel  the  force  of  gravitation.  So  nearly  every 
force  may  be  expelled,  dematerialized  and  made  cosmic, 
from  any  object  of  nature,  without  injury  to  others. 
Besides,  if  there  was  a  unity  of  forces  in  matter,  it  could 


152  THE  COSMIC  aoD. 

present  but  one  kind  of  quality,  which  we  know  not  to 
be  the  ease. 

Consequently  only  one  possibility  is  left,  viz.,  there  is  a 
superior  and  governing  force  which  unites  inferior  forces 
in  various  relations  and  proportions,  to  form  and  to  sus- 
tain intact  the  various  objects  of  nature,  each  of  which 
is  a  teleological  center;  and  as  soon  as  the  influence  of 
that  superior  force  is  withdrawn  from  any  natural  ob- 
ject, the  remaining  inferior  forces,  by  their  inherent 
tendency,  strive  to  become  again  cosmic,  which  changes 
the  respective  bulk  of  matter  in  death,  decay,  dissolution, 
and  would  end  with  the  reduction  thereof  to  its  elemen- 
tary or  cosmic  state,  if  not  arrested  by  that  superior 
force.  So,  and  not  otherwise,  life  and  death,  differentia- 
tion and  iudifferentiation,  being  and  dissolution,  converg 
ence  and  divergence  in  all  forms  can  be  understood. 
Therefore  no  object  of  nature  can  be  duplicated  by  hu- 
man ingenuity,  simj)ly  because  that  superior  and  govern- 
ing force  is  not,  and  most  likely  will  never  be,  under  man's 
control. 

I  beg  you,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  take  particular 
notice  of  this  point :  The  natural  objects  themselves, 
granite  or  tree,  diamond  or  beast,  metal  or  man,  pebble 
or  sun,  forcibly  and  irresistibly  suggest  the  necessary  ex- 
istence of  a  superior  and  governing  force,  by  which  each 
and  all  of  them  become,  are,  and  return  to,  the  cosmos. 
This  superior  and  governing  force  is  as  evident  to  our 
mind  as  our  self-consciousness,  and  as  perceptible  to  our 
senses  as  the  natui'al  objects  themselves  are.  What  Aris- 
totle called  morphe,  the  form,  that  something  which  makes 
every  particular  object  to  what  it  actually  is,  with  those 
peculiar  qualities  which  it  manifests,  is  the  superior  force 
which  governs  all  others  and  modifies  matter  and  infe- 
rior forces  accordingl}^.  This  is  no  hypothesis,  no  theo- 
ry ;  it  is  law,  universal  and  undeniable. 

I  beg  leave,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  remind  you  that 
in  biology  we  have  discovered  a  similar  superior  and 
governing  force  of  organic  kingdoms,  which  was  called 
there  vital  force.  Then  we  have  ascertained  that  vital 
force,  life,  will,  and  intellect  are  in  fact  one  substance 
with  these  discernable  attributes.  Then  we  have  ascer- 
tained in  the  teleology  of  history  that  the  same  force  is 
also  the  Logos  of  History  and  Justice,  commonly  called 
Providence.  Now  we  have  established  an  analogous 
force,  governing  and  superior,  also  in  the  inorganic  king- 
doms. Also  here  is  will  as  the  profuse  variety  of  the 
objects  of  nature  demonstrate  ;  hence,  also  here  is  free- 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  153 

doin.  Also  here  is  intellect,  as  the  presence  of  will 
proves  ;  and  as  every  object  of  nature  is  in  itself  a  teleo- 
lugical  center,  being  co-ordinate  and  sub-ordinate  to 
the  cosmos,  its  law,  order,,  and  harmony.  Also  here  is  a 
genius  of  inorganic  nature,  which  combines,  proportions, 
shapes,  and  overrules  inferior  forces,  to  bring  forth  and 
to  sustain  these  objects  of  nature  and  with  them  also  the 
-cosmos.  Hence  either  these  various  superior  and  govern- 
ing forces  are  identical,  or  we  have  arrived  at  the  exis- 
tence of  several  Gods,  one  of  organic  and  another  of  in- 
organic nature,  one  of  nature  and  another  of  history.  I 
say  "gods,"  although  this  word  is  still  postulated  only; 
but  I  will  prove  hereafter  that  the  term  is  used  in  its 
jjroper  signification. 

Ancient  nations  understood  this  quite  well,  therefore 
their  gods  or  genii  for  every  class  of  natural  objects,  and 
their  superior  geds  presiding  over  those  inferior  spirits, 
to  account  for  the  order  and  harmony  in  the  cosmos.  So 
the  Kabbalistic  Jews  had  their  presiding  angels,  not 
only  over  the  various  elements  and  forces,  but  also  over 
the  special  classes  of  natural  objects,  which  play  a  con- 
siderable part  in  the  philosophj'-  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
One  of  them  was  the  Sechel  hap-poel,  the  active  or  ener- 
getic reason,  the  Genius  of  Man  and  History,  Metathronos 
who  was  Paul's  pattern  in  shaping  his  Jesus. 

It  had  been  partly  shown  before,  that  the  Logos  of 
History  manifests  the  same  laws  precisely  as  the  (xenius 
of  Inorganic  Nature;  therefore  we  called  history  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  earth's  creation.  With  man's  appear- 
.ance  on  earth,  physical  creation  closed  and  mental  crea- 
tion began;  the  pedestal  was  finished  and  the  statuary 
■was  placed  upon  it.     Geology  proves  this  abundantly. 

As  far  back  as  science  permits  us  to  look,  we  can  only 
think  of  matter  in  its  primary  elements,  isolated,  with 
no  force  acting  upon  it.  Whether  this  matter  in  its  zero 
state  was  in  God,  outside  of  Him,  or  created  by  Him,  is 
a  question  of  no  particular  importance  to  us  ;  therefore  I 
postulate,  it  was.  Chemistry  knows  of  elements  only; 
atoms  or  molecules  are  creatures  of  science  or  imagina- 
tion ;  elements  only  are  thinkable  or  imaginable.  These 
elements,  however  numerous,  must  have  existed  as  par- 
allels without  convergence.  No  force  being  in  them, 
there  was  neither  affinity  nor  attraction.  The  first  act 
of  creation  of  this  or  any  other  solar  system,  this  or  any 
other  planet,  was  the  compression  or  concussion  of  these 
elements.  This  produced  heat,  and  in  such  immense 
quantity,  that  the  facit  of  its  calculation  sounds  fabulous ; 


154  THE  COSMIC   GOD. 

yet  the  collision  of  the  elements  must  have  produced  an 
amount  of  heat  corresponding  to  the  mass  and  the  force 
of  concussion.  Now  all  the  elements,  say  of  this  earth, 
were  one  chaotic  mass  of  burning  liquid.  With  heat 
there  came  light,  electricity,  and  motion,  the  unity  of 
which  is  doubtful  no  longer.  So  first  was  the  Tqhn  Wa- 
bohu,  viz.,  the  parallels  of  elementary  matter  in  space. 
Then  "God  said  let  there  be  light  and  there  was  light," 
i.  e.,  there  was  heat,  light,  electricity,  and  motion,  con- 
vertible into  one  another.  Electricity,  of  course,  must 
have  been  dynamical,  now  known  as  galvanic.  Fric- 
tional  and  magnetic  electricity  could  develop  only  after 
the  mass  had  cooled  off  and  metallic  formations  had 
ensued. 

With  the  compression  or  concussion  of  the  primary 
elements,  the  force  of  cohesion,  chemical  affinity,  and 
molecular  attraction  was  also  imparted  to  the  chaotic 
liquid,  developing  gradually,  in  which  there  was  action^ 
and  reaction  in  the  form  of  contraction  and  expansion. 
Contraction  may  be  the  reaction  of  expansion  by  the 
mere  contact  of  the  fiery  liquid  with  cold  space  ;  or  ex- 
pansion may  be  the  reaction  of  contraction  by  the  rari- 
fied  and  porous  state  of  the  heated  liquid,  and  this  may 
translate  heat  into  light,  electricity,  and  motion.  At  any 
rate  only  one  force  .was  originally  imparted  to  the  ele- 
ments, by  which  the  creation  and  Ibrmation  of  this  earth 
was  effected,  and  from  which  all  the  other  forces  were 
gra^iually  developed.  Therefore  in  our  days  the  corre- 
lation of  forces  in  their  cosmic  state  is  doubted  no 
longer  in  science.     All  physical  forces  are  a  unit. 

After  a  brief  reflection,  however,  we  discover  that  the 
force  of  compression  must  have  preceded  the  forca 
of  expansion  ;  for  the  very  first  act  of  creation  was  the 
eompression  or  concussion  of  the  elementary  parallels. 
In  fact,  expansion  became  a  force,  after  compression  had 
united  elementary  matter  and  imbued  it  with  force.  It 
is  in  the  nature  of  force  to  strive  perpetually  to  become 
cosmic,  to  separate  itself  from  the  material  objects,  in 
which  it  is  kept  insolated  by  the  superior  and  governing 
force.  So  it  is  in  the  nature  of  matter  to  dissolve  inta 
its  primary  elements,  unless  kept  together  by  force,  these 
two  tendencies  forni  the  groundwork  of  the  force  of  ex- 
pansion, therefore  before  force  and  matter  were  united^ 
and  the  parallels  of  matter  were  compressed  to  a  body  or 
bodies,  there  could  be  no  force  of  expansion  in  them; 
hence  compression  is  the  original  force.  Here  then  we 
have  precisely  the  same  force  at   the  bottom  of  creation 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  155 

which  we  have  discovered  as  the  superior  and  govern ing^ 
force  in  all  objects  of  nature,  viz.,  compression  forming 
and  preserving  intact  all  objects  of  nature,  of  which  all 
other  physical  forces  are  derivatives,  consequently  sub- 
ject to  its  control.  Also  planetary  attraction  and  repul- 
sion are  reactions  of  the  force  cff  compression,  in  fact 
all  creations  and  preservation  result  from  compression, 
but  we  can  not  enlarge  here  on  this  topic. 

One  force  in  this  earth  is,  all  others  are  reactions 
thereof;  and  this  one  force  was  originally  the  impulse 
imparted  to  the  elementary  parallels  of  matter,  by  the 
substance.  And  so  we  have  arrived  again  at  one  sub- 
stantial force,  in  the  creation  and  preservation  of  all  nat- 
ural objects,  or  if  this  is  identical  with  God,  at  the  exis- 
tence of  one  God.  This  first  creative  impulse  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Bible,  thus  :  "And  the  spirit  of  God  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters";  not  in  the  water,  but  upon 
its  surface,  because  it  was  the  force  of  compression ;  not 
God  Himself  moved  upon  the  water,  but  His  spirit,  wind, 
pneuma,  will,  because  it  was  an  impulse  imparted  to  the 
elementary  parallels. 

This  first  impulse  could  not  have  been  the  work  of 
chance  or  casualty;  for  in  all  which  comes  within  the 
cognition  of  man,  in  organic  or  inorganic  nature,  in  his- 
tory, or  even  in  imagination,  there  is  not  one  phenome- 
non without  a  cause.  In  fact,  the  human  mind  is  incap- 
able of  thinking  of  a  causeless  effect.  Causality  is  not  a 
mere  category  of  the  human  understanding;  like  space, 
it  is  a  reality,  inseparable  from  all  which  is,  was,  or  will 
be.  Hence  the  first  impulse  given  to  the  elementary 
parallels  must  have  proceeded  from  a  cause,  and  all 
phenomena  developing  from  that  impulse  to  this  moment 
must  form  one  consecutive  chain  of  cause  and  effect, 
although  each  object  is  a  causalnexus. 

An  impulse  is  an  action  ;  an  action  is  a  function;  and, 
a  function  is  in  a  substance  only.  Nothing  can  do 
nothing.  Something  only  can  do  something.  Hence  the 
primary  force  which  imparted  the  creative  impulse  to  the 
elementary  parallels  is  a  substance,  outside  and  above  the 
earth  and  its  forces,  for  which  we  have  no  better  appel- 
lative than  super-mundane. 

There  can  be  nothing  in  the  effect  which  is  sot  also  ia 
its  cause.  The  cause  in  this  case  is  super-mundane,  con- 
sequently psychical ;  hence  the  forces  themselves  must  be 
psychical,  which  in  their  action  and  reaction  upon  mat- 
ter became  materialized,  and  dematerialized  again  in 
their  cosmic  state.     So  we   are  enabled  to   form  a  clear 


156  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

conception    of  the   origin  of  physical   forces  and    their 
quodity. 

We  have  now  pressed  the  question  onward  to  two 
psychical  substances,  one  above  inorganic  nature  and 
creation,  and  another  above  organic  nature  and  history. 
We  could  well  enough  close  here  with  the  reasoning 
of  Maimonides,  Descartes,  and  Spinoza,  that  there  can 
be  only  one  psychical  substance  ;  or,  calling  thi?  sub- 
stance force,  we  could  at  once  refer  to  the  universality 
and  unity  of  force;  and  we  would  have  arrived  already 
at  the  existence  of  one  God.  Still  I  have  more  evidence 
on  hand,  of  which  Maimonides,  Descrates,  and  Spinoza 
made  no  use,  and  propose  to  produce  it  in  my  next 
lectures. 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  157 


LECTURE    XX. 


ON   METAPHYSICS — II.    LECTURE,    NATURE'S   GOD. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — I  believe  it  may  be  set  down 
as  a  general  principle,  wherever  we  have  before  us  two 
or  more  eflFects,  we  have  no  right  yet  to  postulate  two  sub- 
stantial causes ;  for  the  dift'erence  of  effect  only  points 
to  a  difference  of  functions,  but  by  no  means  also  to  two 
substantial  causes.  Again  the  unity  of  the  idea  in  any 
continuous  chain  of  cause  and  effects  excludes  the  possi- 
bility of  two  first  causes.  The  material  universe  and  the 
history  of  man  are  known  to  us  as  such  a  unity. 

If  these  propositions  are  true,  and  I  do  not  reoollect 
that  they  have  been  doubted,  then  we  need  not  prove 
the  unity  of  the  two  postulated  gods  of  our  last  lecture, 
viz.,  the  Genius  of  the  inorganic  kingdom  and  creation, 
and  the  Logos  of  the  organic  kingdom  and  history. 
Any  division  of  the  first  cause  could  be  conccptional^ 
only,  never  real.  Every  dualism,  trinitarianism  or  poly^t 
ism  in  the  first  cause  is  necessarily  false. 

In  the  special  question  before  us,  the  analogy  of  the 
different  phenomena  points  distinctly  to  the  identity  of  the 
cause.  The  main  force  in  the  inorganic  kingdom  becomes 
phenomenal  in  the  form  of  contraction  and  expansion. 
The  contraction  or  compression,  we  have  noticed  as  the 
continuous  activity  of  the  primary  force,  of  the  impulse 
imparted  originally  to  inert  matter.  Expansion,  is  the 
inherent  tendency  of  matter,  to  dissolve  into  its  primary 
elements,  to  fall  apart  and  become  cosmic.  This  is  not  a 
force,  but  a  negative  thereof,  a  first,  passive,  and  zero 
condition  which  produces  no  effect.  All  phenomenal 
effects  are  resultants  of  active  forces,  which  are  derivatives 
of  the  first  impulse,  the  superior  and  governing  force, 
known  to  us  in  the  form  of  contraction  or  compression. 
This  is  selt-evident  to  the  chemist  who  reduces  solid  to 
liquid,  liquid  to  gas  and  ether,  by  expelling   the  forces 


158  THE   COSMIC    GOD. 

from  matter,  which  he  liberates  and  reduces  to  its  primary, 
passive  and  zero  state,  as  far  as  he  can. 

The  same  main  force,  however,  becomes  phenomenal 
also  in  organic  nature,  only  that  it  developes  new  func- 
tions. It  is  attraction  and  repulsion,  positive  and  nega- 
tive electricity,  north  and  south  poles  in  the  magnet,  cen- 
trifugal and  centripetal  power,  or  however  it  becomes 
phenomenal.  We  observe  the  same  fundamental  action 
in  the  cell  or  even  protoplasm,  contraction  and  expansion, 
and  by  it  accretion  and  secretion,  internal  motion  and 
external  limitation.  This  is  the  fundamental  function 
of  all  organic  life.  Then  it  re-appears  in  animal  in- 
stinct, in  man's  selfishness  and  social  nature,  as  well  as  his 
struggle  for  personal  freedom  and  patriotism,  to  be  at 
the  same  time  an  independent  individual  and  a  depen- 
dent citizen  of  a  largo,  populous,  and  powerful  com- 
munity, which  is  the  primary  cause  of  all  history,  with 
its  two  similar  elements  of  conservatism  and  progres- 
eionism.  It  is  always  the  same  fundamental  principle  of 
contraction  and  expansion,  only  that  a  variety  of  new 
functions  of  the  same  cause  become  phenomenal  under 
new  circumstances.  Hence,  we  have  not  the  least  ground 
for  the  supposition  of  two  first  causes. 

Nor,  indeed,  is  there  any  reason  to  think  of  another 
first  cause  somewhere  outside  of  this  solar  system,  as  we 
know  the  same  force  and  matter  to  be  universal.  If 
there  is  anything  certain  in  the  teachings  of  astronomy, 
it  is  beyond  a  doubt,  that  light,  motion  and  attraction 
appertain  to  all  celestial  bodies.  These  forces  being 
derivatives  of  the  first  impulse,  the  superior  and  govern- 
ing force,  hence  the  same  first  cause  everywhere;  although 
in  the  materialization  of  force,  other  derivatives  may  be 
Active  on  other  stars,  and  produce  modifications  of  mat- 
ter unknown  to  us. 

Again,  by  the  spectrum  analysis  and  by  the  meteors  or 
aerolites  reaching  our  earth  from  diflferent  regions,  we 
know  that  matter  is  matter  everywhere,  of  the  same  sub- 
stance and  qualities,  although  elements,  in  consequence  of 
other  derivative  forces,  may  combine  to  different  com- 
positions in  different  stars.  The  possibility  of  combina- 
tions of  one  hundred  elements,  and  there  are  certainly 
rather  more  than  less,  is  almost  infinite  ;  but  every  com- 
bination remains  the  same  matter  subject  to  the  same  force. 
So  all  possible  varieties  and  modifications  of  matter  would 
not  point  to  a  second  original  cause.  Therefore,  there  can 
be  little  doubt,  that  all  celestial  bodies,  however  different 
their  atmospheres,  rotations,  and  relations  to  this  or  any 


ON    METAPHYSICS.  159 

other  sun,  are  populated  with  living  beings,  in  correspond- 
ence with  those  various  conditions;  and  there  like  here,  the 
last  link  in  the  chain  must  be  intelligent  beings  akin  to  man. 

But  aside  of  all  these  considerations,  the  unity  of  the 
first  cause  is  proved  by  the  teleology  of  creation,  being, 
and  history.  Every  stage  of  the  earth's  formation, 
every  individual  object  of  nature,  and  every  period 
of  man's  history,  as  we  have  noticed  before,  is  a  teleolog- 
ical  center,  the  end,  aim,  and  object  of  a  design  and  pur- 
pose, a  logical  sequence  of  prior  causes,  back  to  the  first 
•cause.  In  every  stage  of  the  earth's  formation  and  every 
period  of  history,  as  in  every  individual  object  of  nature, 
as  a  necessary  part  of  the  cosmos,  there  is  again  the 
germ  and  efficient  cause  to  the  next  following  ones,  and 
«o  on  from  the  first  impulse  imparted  to  the  elementary 
parallels,  to  the  present  stage  of  the  earth  and  period  of 
history.  So  and  not  otherwise  we  can  understand  the 
xjontinuous  chain  of  cause  and  effects  phenomenal  in 
every  causalnexus,  necessarily  connected  with  the  law  of 
causality. 

Therefore  we  are  entitled  at  every  point  not  only  to 
the  question  of  efficient  causes,  but  also  to  the  queries 
•why  and  whereto,  at  every  pause.  Naturalists  will 
never  arrive  at  a  proper  understanding  of  nature,  unless 
they  search  after  the  why  and  whereto  at  every  stage  of 
creation,  and  history,  the  objects  of  nature  and  their  re- 
spective parts.  The  fact  is,  while  one  ascertains  the 
■efficient  causes  of  one  stage  or  period,  he  exposes  the 
final  causes  of  the  pi'ior  stages  or  periods.  Whatever  is 
efficient  cause  in  any  higher  stage,  was  final  cause  in  the 
lower  one.  This  is  the  unmistakable  architecture  of  na- 
ture and  history.  Science  may  not  succeed  in  this  or  the 
next  century  to  ascertain  in  all  instances  all  efficient  and 
final  causes;  but  it  will  certainly  solve  one  problem  after 
the  other,  and  unless  they  are  infinite,  they  must  cer- 
tainly be  solved  one  day  or  another.  When  the  law  of 
nature  and  history  will  be  scientifically  establisned  we 
will  be  enabled  to  see  the  final  causes,  without  being 
prophets,  and  then  the  final  causes  must  unravel  to  us  the 
mystery  of  the  final  cause.     Nothing  is  unknowable. 

When  the  first  impulse  was  imparted  to  the  elerfientary 
parallels  to  unite  and  mingle  by  compression  or  concus- 
sion, this  impulse  was  the  efficient  cause  ;  the  final  cause 
was  the  unification  of  the  elements  and  the  ensuing  heat 
of  about  2,000  degrees  F.,  taking  the  medium  number 
between  the  extremes;  and  this  was  stage  No.  1.  The 
liquid   and    radiating   fire  ball   which,  from   the  proper 


160  THE  COSMIC  aop, 

distance,  must  have  looked  like  a  sun,  was  stage  No.  2,  to> 
whicn  stage  No.  1  contained  the  efficient  cause,  and  of 
which  it  was  the  final  cause.  But  this  fire  ball  was  not 
to  remain  in  statu-quo.  By  the  forces  evolving  from  the 
first  impulse  and  materializing  in  the  fiery  liquid,  it 
moved  around  its  axis  and  in  some  orbit  around  the  sun. 
Gradually  it  cooled  off,  formed  a  solid  nucleus  and  crust, 
the  radiating  heat  earring  ofi"  the  various  gases,  formed  an 
atmosphere,  thick,  heavy  and  pregnant  also  with  the 
elements  which  afterwards  formed  the  outer  crust  of  the 
earth,  and  the  ocean.  When  the  surface  of  the  young 
earth  was  cooled  down  to  about  200  degrees  F.  the  gases 
attracted  from  the  atmosphere  covered  the  earth,  all,  or 
nearly  so,  with  water  of  a  peculiar  thickness  ;  and  yet 
there  was  a  division,  an  expansion,  a  firmament,  between 
the  water  on  the  earth  and  that  above  it  still  suspended 
in  the  thick  and  heavy  atmosphere,  through  which  the 
rays  of  the  sun  light  penetrated  sparingly.  It  was  staere- 
No.  3,  the  earth  was  in  a  condition  to  bring  forth  organic 
beings;  and  this  stage  No.  3,  was  the  final  cause  of  stages 
No.  1  and  2,  which  contained  its  efficient  causes. 

"Was  this  stage  creation's  objective  point?  Certainly 
not.  If  it  had  been  it  must  have  stopped  there,  which  it 
did  not.  New  functions  of  the  first  cause  become  now 
phenomenal,  organic  beings  of  the  lowest  forms  are 
Drought  forth  in  the  thick  and  hot  water,  the  lowest 
forms  of  vegetables  and  animals,  rising  gradually  in  the 
scale  of  evolution  to  huge  monsters.  Here  the  final 
cause  of  all  former  stages  becomes  phenomenal  in  the  ex- 
istence of  living  beings.  The  first  impulse  imparted  to 
matter  by  its  materialized  derivatives  has  overcome  the 
primary  tendency  of  matter  to  dissolve  and  separate  in 
its  elements;  there  is  an  earth  of  one  piece,  covered  with 
a  continuous  'sheet  of  water — and  attempts  now  to  come 
forth  from  its  unconscious  to  the  conscious  condition  in 
animal  centers,  to  which  the  vegetables  are  the  state  of 
transition  in  the  gradual  evolution  and  differentiation. 
Here  then  we  have  stage  No.  4,  the  start  of  conscious 
centers,  in  which  the  force  captivated  in  matter  attempts 
its  liberation,  after  it  had  overcome  inert  matter  to  that 
extent  that  organic  formation  had  become  possible;  and 
here  again  stage  No.  4  is  the  final  cause  of  stages  Nos.  1, 
2,  and  3  which  contain  its  efficient  causes. 

Following  up  the  progress  of  creation,  we  observe  how 
the  formation  of  the  earth's  crust,  the  change  of  atmos- 
phere, and  the  development  of  vegetable  and  animal  life 
go  hand  in  hand   in  the  regular  routine   of  cause  and 


ON   METAPHYSICS.  161 

eflFect.  As  the  water  is  distilling,  its  sediments  settle 
down  to  the  bottom,  the  fish  make  their  appearance.  As 
the  water  recedes  and  swamps  ensue,  the  amphibies  fol- 
low, always  preceded  by  their  food.  As  the  earth  attract* 
the  carbon  from  the  atmosphere,  producing  huge  vegeta- 
tion, the  birds,  carbon  inhaling,  come  in  existence,  food 
and  shelter  preceded  them.  And  when  the  carbon  en- 
veloping the  earth  like  a  thick  cloud  had  been  sufficiently 
attracted  by  the  earth,  sun,  moon  and  stars  become  visi- 
ble on  the  earth.  Here  we  have  stage  No.  5,  the  earth 
covered  with. rich  vegetation,  land  and  ocean  populated 
with  radiates,  mollusks,  and  articulates  of  most  beauteous 
forms,  together  with  fishes,  amphibies,  and  birds,  now 
under  the  direct  influence  of  the  sun  and  the  other  celes- 
tial bodies,  and  the  earth  in  its  proper  orbit.  The  ob- 
scure gloom  has  passed  away  and  the  age  of  light  has 
commenced  on  earth.  The  primary  force  materialized  in 
the  earth  is  reunited  with  the  cosmic  light,  has  liberated 
itself  from  the  state  of  gloomy  obscurity.  Here  is  stage 
No.  5,  the  final  cause  of  stages  No.  1,  2,  3,  4,  with  its 
efficient  causes  in  all  of  them. 

Now  come  the  creatures  of  light,  the  constant  types. 
Now,  and  not  before,  the  mammals  could  make  their  ap- 
pearance. Elementary  matter  had  first  to  be  brought  so 
far  under  the  control  of  the  active  force  before  it  could 
achieve  its  liberation  from  the  material  bonds  of  uncon- 
sciousness. But  it  progresses  rapidly  through  all  transi- 
tory forms  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms, 
through  all  phases  of  conscious  beings,  always  imparting 
to  matter  higher  morphic  qualities,  preparing  it  for 
higher  formations,  until  the  last  triumph  is  achieved,  viz.^ 
the  unconscious  has  become  conscious  in  the  animal 
kingdom,  with  the  vegetables  as  its  points  of  transition  ; 
now  the  conscious  becomes  self-conscious  in  man,  with 
the  animals  as  points  of  transition.  The  primary  force 
becomes  self-conscious  itself  again,  in  the  self-consciou* 
man,  who,  knowing  all  in  his  consciousness,  distinguishes 
himself  from  all ;  and  this  is  his  self-consciousness.  The 
first  cause  has  become  itself  again,  the  self-conscious 
psychical  cause  of  all  forces  and  all  motion  in  matter. 
So  the  ring  of  creation  was  completed  with  stage  No.  6, 
with  its  efficient  causes  in  stages  1,  2,  3,  4,  and  5,  of  all 
of  which  it  is  the  final  cause  and  teleological  center. 

But  here  the  work  is  not  finished,  for  man  is  not  fully 

self-conscious  until  he  knows  all  which   is   knowable,  to 

distinguish  himself  from  all  which  is,  and   consequently 

the  work  of  this  cause  is  not  completed  with  the  earthi* 

11 


162  THE   COSMIC   GOD. 

and  other  planets'  creation.  Here  begins  stage  No.  7, 
man's  history.  It  is  the  Creator's  Sabbath.  The  work 
of  liberation  from  matter  and  the  triumph  over  it,  begins  ■ 
in  man,  by  him,  and  for  liim.  He  works  on  to  ac- 
complish the  subjugation  of  matter,  the  resurrection  of 
self-conscious  spirit,  the  triumph  of  life  over  death,  of 
light  over  darkness,  of  self-conscious  intelligence  over 
blind  and  inexorable  powers  of  darkness;  of  freedom, 
hn'o,  and  happiness  over  cold  and  barren  necessity. 
This  is  the  creation  of  history,  the  progress  of  the  prim- 
ary force  to  self-conscious  existence  in  the  human  family, 
and  the  stages  thereof  are  well  marked  in  the  works  of 
intelligent  historians.  Therefore  the  Bible  states  :  "And 
on  the  seventh  day  (not  on  the  sixth)  God  completed 
His  work  which  He  had  made;  and  He  ceased  to  work 
on  the  seventh  day  from  all  the  work  He  had  made  (for 
here  man's  work  begins).  And  God  blessed  the  seventh 
day  and  sanctified  it,  because  then  He  had  ceased  from 
all  His  work,  which  God  had  created  to  do"  (to  go  on 
and  on  to  perfection  with  the  progression  of  man's 
history).  This  stage,  No.  7,  is  the  final  cause  of  all  pre- 
vious stages  w^hich  contain  its  efficient  causes. 

You  see,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  it  is  all  one  piece,  of 
one  cast,  one  chain  of  cause  and  effects,  one  design,  one 
object,  all  of  which  must  have  been  present  in  stage  No. 
1  and  in  each  succeeding  stage.  All  of  them  were  in  the 
first,  the  last  in  the  first,  and  all  in  each,  which  the 
ancient  Hebrews  described  as  : 

nhnn  n^^j^nos  ntj^r^D  f]iD 

*' The  end  of  the  work  contained  in  the  first  thought." 

Here  then  is  one  will,  intellect,  and  design,  one  object 
and  one  executive  power,  one  spirit,  one  piece  of  inevit- 
able logic,  from  w^hich  no  iota  can  be  taken  awaj^  none 
added,  and  none  inverted.  Here  the  bare  possibility  of 
more  than  one  first  cause  falls  to  the  ground.  As  soon  as 
intelligence  claims  its  right  to  look  upon  the  cosmos 
through  the  law  of  causality,  it  is  led  forward  and  back- 
ward through  the  unbroken  chain  to  the  final  cause  and 
to  the  first  cause,  which  reveals  its  nature  in  its  own 
last  triumphs,  in  the  self-conscious  intelligence  of  man. 

He,  the  substance,  who  has  imparted  this  first  impulse 
to  the  parallels  of  matter,  of  this  and  any  other  planet 
or  solar  system,  the  impulse  from  which  all  forces  of  na- 
ture have  ensued,  and  by  evolution  and  differentiation, 
constructed  this  great  cosmos,  triumphs  over  all  matter 


ON    METAPHYSICS.  163 

IE  the  self-constiious  intelligence  of  man,  remains  in  him 
and  over  him,  presei'ving  and  governing  all,  shaping  all 
destinies,  guiding  all  and  constantly  from  lower  to  higher 
conditions ;  He  who  is  the  Genius  of  nature  and  the 
Logos  of  history,  fills  all  space  and  is  the  force  of  all 
forces ;  He  is  the  Cosmic  God,  for  He  is  the  cause  of  all 
causes,  the  first  principle  of  all  things,  the  only  sub- 
stance whose  attributes  are  life,  will,  and  intellect.  Mat- 
ter is  the  non-substance,  for  it  has  no  functions  ;  it  is 
the  inert,  passive,  and  imperceptible  material,  which  He, 
hy  the  forces,  moves,  shapes,  subjects,  and  governs.  He 
is  Almighty,  for  He  is  the  force  of  all  forces,  the  cause  of 
all  causes.  He  is  omniprescent,  revealed  everywhere  by 
the  ever-active  force  of  all  forces  in  nature,  and  every 
motion  of  the  human  intellect.  He  is  omniprescent,  for 
He  fills  all  space  and  penetrates  all  atomic  matter.  He 
is  all-wise  and  omniscient,  for  He  is  the  intellect  of  all 
intellect,  its  cause  and  substance.  He  is  the  Preserver 
and  Governor,  for  He  is  the  will,  freedom,  and  justice. 
He  is  the  Cosmic  God,  who  is  not  anthropomorphous. 
He  is  not  in  heaven  above  nor  on  earth  below,  for  He 
is  everywhere,  in  all  space,  in  all  objects  of  nature,  in 
every  attribute  of  matter,  and  in  every  thought  of  the 
mind.  "No  man  can  see  me  and  live."  He  appeared  to 
none,  because  He  continually  and  simultaneously  appears 
to  all  and  through  all.  He  spoke  to  none,  because  He 
epeakg  eternally  and  simultaneously  to  all  and  through 
all.  He  resides  nowhere  especially,  because  He  is  every- 
where continually.  He  had  no  beginning,  because  He 
made  it;  and  no  end,  because  He  has  no  beginning.  He 
changes  not,  because  all  changes  are  effects,  and  He  is 
the  cause  of  all  causes  and  no  effect.  He  is  the  Cosmic 
God, — the  only  God, — whose  name  is  ineffable,  who  alone 
is,  was,  and  will  be  forever  and  aye,  whose  existence 
none  can  deny,  and  whose  immensity  none  can  compre- 
hend. We  know,  we  feel  His  immeasureable  grandeur, 
and  worship  Him  with  awe. 

Scientists,  here  is  your  God  and  Lord,  whom  you  seek, 
and  whom  to  find  is  the  highest  wisdom.  He  is  the 
God  found  by  induction  and  felt  by  spontaneity.  Philos- 
ophers, here  is  your  God,  whom  to  expound  is  the  high- 
est glory  of  human  mind — Kant,  and  other  thinkers, 
have  argued  against  the  anthropomorphous  God  of  the- 
ology; the  cosmic  God  is  philosophy's  first  and  last  sub- 
stance. Simple-minded  men,  here  is  your  God,  whom 
you  need  not  seek,  for  He  is  everywhere,  in  you  and 
about  you,  in  every  quality  of  matter  and  every  motion 


Ifi4  THE  COSMIC  GOT). 

of  the  mind  ;  where  you  are,  He  is  ;  where  you  observe? 
or  think,  you  think  Him.  Children,  here  is  your  God, 
in  the  fragrance  of  your  flowers,  in  the  beauteous  hues  of 
vernal  blossoms,  in  the  thunder  and  the  whisper,  in  heav- 
en's azure  dome  and  earth's  verdant  garb,  in  your  inno- 
cent smiles  and  your  mother's  sweet  tenderness.  Sage  or 
fool,  great  or  little,  here  is  your  God,  you  can  not  escape 
Him,  and  He  cannot  escape  you  ;  He  is  in  you,  and  jon 
are  in  Him.  Men  of  all  future  generations,  here  is  God 
in  the  harmony  of  all  human  conceptions  and  knowledge, 
the  God  of  all,  and  all  eternity,  the  Cosmic  God,  the 
Great  I  Am,  and  none  beside  Him. 

Thanks  to  the  Almighty,  that  He  has  permitted  us  to- 
look  into  the  mysteries  of  His  creation  ;  that  He  has  led 
and  guided  us  through  the  obsoure  regions  of  this  ma- 
terial world,  onward,  forward,  heavenward,  always  on 
the  simple  path  of  induction,  to  His  very  throne,  to  sim- 
ple, sublime,  and  eternal  truth  for  all  coming  generations. 
Humbly  and  gratefully  I  render  praise  and  thanksgiving 
to  the  Eternal  who  has  permitted  me  to  conceive  these 
thoughts,  combinations,  and  conclusions,  which  have  led 
me  back  home  to  the  one  and  eternal  God.  My  soul 
triumphs  before  Him  at  this  immortal  victory. 

So  far,  in  this  particular  point,  induction  leads.  Here 
deduction  begins,  and  here  ends  our  province  at  present. 
But  we  have  three  more  problems  to  solve,  viz.,  What  is 
nature  ?  What  is  man  ?  Which  is  the  relation  of  God, 
nature,  and  man  ?  I  propose  to  begin  the  discussion  of 
these  problems  in  my  next  lecture. 


NATURE   AND   ITS    RELATION   TO   DEITY.  165 


LECTURE    XXI. 


NATURE  AND   ITS   RELATION    TO   DEITY. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen.— Kature  like  nature's  God  is 
^a  word  much  abused,  often  uttered  and  seldom  under- 
stood. Among  a  thousand  probably  who  use  this  word, 
there  is  no  more  than  one  who  thinks  of  nature's  magni- 
tude, vastness,  grandeur,  and  intricate  mechanism,  sur- 
passing thought  and  bewildering  contemplation ;  and 
among  a  million  using  this  term,  there  is  sometimes 
scarcely  one  who  has  formed  a  clear  idea  of  it.  When 
you  hear  the  atheist  or  gross  materialist  declaim  of  dame 
nature  as  a  personified  mother,  or  utter  expressions  like 
this  :  "  Every  thing  is  natural,  it  is  all  by  and  in  nature, 
nature  is  the  mother  of  all  things,  nature  does  all,"  and 
similar  expressions,  you  hear  just  as  many  empty  and 
unmeaning  words,  of  which  fact  you  can  convince  your- 
selves in  a  moment,  by  asking  the  simple  question,  What 
is  nature?  and  the  answer  received  will  be  as  shallow 
and  uncertain  as  the  declamations  you  had  been  treated 
to. 

It  appears  to  me :  Nature  is  the  combination  of  force 
and  matter,  and  the  causal  activity  of  the  former  in  the 
latter  in  this  substance  and  all  its  phenomenal  modifica- 
tions. The  derivation  of  the  term  from  natus  and  nasci 
"to  be  born,"  points  to  continual  birth,  as  it  were,  of 
phenomenal  modifications,  and  to  a  substantial  cause  be- 
hind the  phenomena,  by  which  birth  is  given. 

Nature,  therefore,  contains  four  distinct  ideas :  The 
forces  which  manifest  themselves  and  the  matter  in  which 
it  is  manifested,  which  in  their  union  form  created  sub- 
stance ;  the  causation  in  this  substance  and  the  mo^ws 
operandi,  or  causality  and  modality;  and  the  individual 
objects  of  nature,  continually  rising  and  falling  in  the 
created  substance,  or  individuation — all  of  which  is  con- 
tained in   the   four   categories:      Substantial    existence, 


166  THE  COSMIC  GOD. 

causation,  modality  and  phenomenal  being,  which  are  the 
ioundation  of  all  existence,  and  also  of  the  ten  categories 
of  Aristotle. 

Whatever  being  or  attribute  of  a  being  springs  from 
those  ,four  cardinal  ideas  is  to  be  called  natural.  Second- 
ary significations  of  the  terms  nature  or  natural  do  not 
concern  us  here. 

When  we  say  the  world  or  the  universe,  we  usually 
mean,  in  the  abstract,  nature  at  rest,  i.  e.  space  and  its 
contents  without  reference  to  motion,  activity,  or  causa- 
tion. When  we  say  cosmos,  we  mean,  again  in  the  ab- 
stract, nature  at  work,  in  reference  to  its  law,  order  and 
harmony,  and  without  reference  to  its  substance  or  ma- 
terial. Both  world  and  cosmos  are  contained  in  the  term 
nature. 

We  have  said  nothing  about  time,  because  it  is  a  non- 
entity; it  is  a  category  of  a  priori  thought  in  reference 
of  planetary  revolution.  Eternity  means  no  time.  We 
compute  time,  not  on  account  of  its  reality  but  on  ac- 
count of  our  perishable  nature  and  the  revolution  of  the 
planets.  Time  must  be  deduced  from  nature  and  placed 
within  the  sphere  of  human  reason.  In  our  dreams  time 
disappears ;  so  it  does  with  the  somnambulist,  and 
wherever  self-consciousness  is  suspended.  Animals  have 
as  little  an  idea  of  time,  as  they  have  of  numbers.  We 
arrive  at  the  idea  of  time  by  our  pulsations  and  the  plan- 
etary motions.  What  we  on  this  earth  call  time  and  the 
beginning  of  time,  the  Bereshith,  as  reads  the  first  word 
of  the  Bible,  could  begin  with  the  rotation  of  this  earth 
only.  On  other  planets,  time  had  another  beginning,  and 
consists  of  other  divisions ;  and  wherever  there  are  no 
self-conscious  beings,  there  is  no  time. 

Space  is  the  continuity  of  the  substance.  All  is  in 
space  and  nothing  outside  thereof.  There  is  no  outside 
thereof  Space  is  the  reality  itself  It  is  not  merely  the 
Where?  of  all  realities,  also  not  a  mere  category  of  a 
priori  thought ;  it  is  the  substance,  the  force,  the  first 
cause,  God's  habitation,  and  infinite  extension,  in  fact 
indivisible,  is  an  attribute  of  the  substance.  There  is 
another  time  but  the  same  space  on  every  planet. 

There  is  but  one  substance,  and  this  oae  is  psychical. 
This  one  psychical  substance  with  the  knowable  attributes 
of  life,  will,  intellect  and  extension  is  spirit,  the  Cosmic 
God.  Matter  whether  in  the  Deity  or  of  the  Dt-ity, 
neither  of  which  can  be  positively  denied  or  affirmed  by 
experience  and  induction,  is  no  substance  ;  because 
without  the  influence  of  force,  in  its  primary  and  elementaiy 


NATURE   AND    ITS    RELATION  TO   DEITY.  167 

state  it  has  no  attributes  and  no  qualities,  no  activity 
and  no  influence;  it  is  the  passive  and  indifferent  zero. 
Whatever  is,  must  demonstrate  existence  of  itself;  prim- 
ary matter,  by  itself,  is  incapable  of  such  demonstration, 
it  is  moved,  formed  and  shaped,  or  made  morphic,  by 
force  or  forces,  As  functions  proceed  from  a  substance, 
80  a  substance  must  exercise  functions.  Hence  matter  is 
no  substance. 

It  must  be  added  here,  that  the  eternity  of  matter  was 
maintained  in  philosophy  by  Aristotle,  and  the  whole 
perapatetic  school.  Among  the  Hebrews  Ibn  Gabirol 
and  Gersonides  defended  this  doctrine.  Ibn  Ezra  thinks 
bara,  the  second  word  of  the  Bible,  does  not  signify  cre- 
ation out  of  nothing.  Maimonides  thinks  the  arguments 
on  both  sides  balance  one  another,  and  creation  out  of 
nothing  is  no  indispensible  Jewish  dogma. 

Wherever  the  force  of  the  substance  acts  upon  the  ele- 
mentary parallels  of  matter,  the  material  substance  is 
the  resultant,  in  which  all  causes  of  the  processes  and  de- 
velopments of  the  created  substance  are  immanent. 
With  this  combination  of  force  and  matter  nature  begins. 
It  begins  with  the  material  substance  in  every  solar  sys- 
tem, and  every  planet  with  the  beginning  thereof  There- 
fore nature  as  it  is  now,  was  not  created  simultaneously; 
nor  do  experience  and  induction  entitle  us,  to  fix  any 
time  for  the  creation  of  this  or  any  other  planet  or  solar 
system,  or  even  for  the  formation'  of  any  of  the  earth's 
strata  under  the  entire  different  conditions  of  heat,  mo- 
tion, electricity  and  magnet,  the  aeriform,  vaporous  or 
liquid  state  of  the  material. 

All  causes  for  the  processes  and  developments  of  the 
material  substance  being  immanent  therein,  it  is  also  the 
beginning  of  the  law  of  causality  on  each  planet ;  i.  e. 
the  processes  and  developments  follow  in  the  regular 
routine  of  cause  and  effect,  of  which  one   of  the  Psalm 

poets  said  ^yj"^  ^^)  ]p J  p^D  *'  Se  hath  given  a  law 

and  he  will  not  trespass  it."  The  derivative  forces  ma- 
terialized in  nature,  work  on  and  on,  as  the  supreme  in- 
tellect has  originally  designed  it  producing  at  every  on- 
ward step  teleological  centers,  which  contain  the  final 
cause  of  previous  conditions,  hence  each. is  a  causalnexus, 
and  bears  in  itself  the  efficient  causp  for  the  next  follow- 
ing teleological  center.  All  that  is,  is  by  the  causal  ac- 
tivity of  force  in  matter.     It  is  nature's  second  step. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  all  solar  systems  and  planeta 
consist  of  the  same  material    substance,  the   same   force 


168  THE  COSMIC  GOD.' 

and  matter  and  the  same  routine  of  cause  and  effect ; 
furthermore,  inasmuch  as  all  forces  are  derivatives  and 
materializations  of  the  one  primary  and  central  force  ; 
there  is  substantial  affinity  among  all  planetary  bodies, 
mediated  by  the  central  force,  in  the  forms  of  attraction 
and  repulsion.  So  the  whole  material  world  is  a  unit,  a 
cosmos  and  no  chaos,  in  the  regular  routine  of  cause  and 
effect,  one  grand  organism,  pervaded  by  the  vital  force 
in  the  unconscious  state,  so  that  each  part,  however  min- 
ute or  immense,  must  perform  intelligently  its  functions 
in  co-ordination  and  sub-ordination  with  a!l  other  parts, 
as  is  the  case  in  every  organic  bodj^.  That  the  law  of 
causality  extends  all  over  the  material  world,  is  sufficiently 
demonstrated  by  the  calculations  and  predictions  of  as- 
tronomy, and  the  laws  governing  that  science.  Next  we 
must  take  into  consideration  the  problem,  if  all  plan- 
ets wei'e  not  created  simultaneously,  and  that  they  were 
not  is  generally  admitted,  how  could  the  existing  ones 
keep  in  their  orbits  without  the  attraction  of  their  neigh- 
boring planets  not  yet  in  existence?  The  same  question 
is  legitimate  in  regard-  to  solar  systems.  Here  jDlain 
facts  compel  us,  in  planetary  attraction;  to  affirm  the  man- 
ifestation of  the  central,  primary,  superior  and  governing 
force,  which  regulutes  substantial  affinity,  attraction  and 
repulsion.  Space  is  not  filled  with  forces,  it  is  force 
itself,  from  which  the  various  forms  of  force  in  matter 
issue.  It  consists  not  of  atomic  and  impenetrable  matter ; 
it  is  psychical,  it  is  substance,  and  there  is  neither  atom 
nor  impenetrability,  as  little  as  either  is  in  feeling,  con- 
sciousness or  thought.  Therefore  the  motion  of  planetary 
bodies  is  regulated  by  the  primary  force,  in  the  Cosmic 
God,  before  the  existence  of  the  planetary  neighbors, 
whose  attraction  then  regulates  motion. 

But  here  the  atheist  or  gross  materialist  steps  in  and 
maintains,  it  is  all  by  the  laws  of  nature ;  i.  e.,  the  laws 
of  nature  are  personified  into  the  superior  and  governing 
force  with  intellect  and  will,  as  though  without  either 
they  could  not  govern  the  material  universe  in  order 
and  harmony.  The  supposed  laws  of  nature  are 
metamorphozed  into  as  many  gods.  I  admit  the  exis- 
tence of  nature,  and  deny  the  existence  of  laws  therein 
as  an  active  principle.  What  are  the  laws  of  nature? 
The  constant  repetition  of  the  same  phenomena  or  effects 
from  the  same  cause  or  causes,  is  called  a  law  of  nature. 
You  see,  the  laws  of  nature  aie  "constant  repetitions," 
and  are  no  more  substantial  that  the  laws  of  a  state  or 
city.     They  express  in  general    principle   the  modality, 


NATURE   AND   ITS   RELATION   TO   DEITY.  169 

the  modus  operandi  of  force  ;  consequently  they  are  formal 
only,  expressing  the  relations  of  the  thinking  mind  to  the 
diflferent  modes  of  being,  as  classified  under  the  ten  cate- 
gories, or  probably  under  my  four.  Therefore  the  laws 
of  nature  are  abstractions  of  the  human  mind,  are  in  the 
same  and  not  in  material  nature,  where  force  is  the  per- 
petual originator  of  cause  and  effect.  The  laws  as  such, 
if  anywhere  outside  of  the  human  mind,  can  be  in  the 
divine  mind  only.  There,  I  will  add,  there  they  must  be. 
For  the  forces  are  the  cause  of  the  regular  succession  of 
cause  and  effect  in  undisturbed  harmony;  and  all  forces 
are  materialized  derivatives  of  the  primary  force  which 
is  a  function  of  the  substance,  hence  of  God.  There  can 
be  nothing  in  the  effect  which  is  not  also  in  the  cause; 
hence  the  whole  chain  of  cause  and  effect,  all  the  pro- 
<;es8es  and  developments  of  the  material  substance,  the 
whole  system  of  evolution  and  differentiation  to  the  very 
end  of  existence,  must  have  been  present  in  the  substance 
prior  to  the  first  act  of  creation,  and  must  have  been  im- 
parted to  the  material  substance  with  the  very  first  im- 
pulse, or  else  causation  was  not  immanent  in  nature. 
This  is  the  omniscience  of  the  Cosmic  God,  He  being 
the  cause  of  all  causes  inclusive  of  all  possible  effects,  as 
each  effect  in  its  turn  becomes  cause  again.  All  laws  of 
nature  being  formal  abstractions  of  the  perpetual  con- 
tinuity of  cause  and  effect,  must  be  present  in  the  divine 
mind. 

Here  is  reality  of  the  universal  spirit,  fictitiously  pos- 
tulated by  La  Place.  Dubois  admits  the  probable  reality 
of  this  universal  spirit;  but  he  says,  I  can  find  no  brain 
in  the  universe,  and  brain  according  to  that  physiologist 
and  others  is  the  cause  of  thought,  consciousness,  reason, 
etc.,  i.  e.,  the  machine  generates  its  own  force,  not  only 
by  which  it  works,  but  also  by  which  it  has  become  a 
machine.  This,  however,  is  no  objection  to  us  who  know 
the  presence  of  will  and  intellect  in  every  manifestation 
of  force,  crystal  or  blade  of  grass,  bud  or  blossom,  polyp 
or  man,  cell  or  sun.  This  is  certainly  no  objection  with 
us,  who  hold  there  can  be  no  effect  without  an  adequate 
<;ause,  and  there  can  be  nothing  in  the  effect  which  is  not 
also  in  the  cause  ;  hence  all  organisms  and  every  part 
thereof,  all  as  a  unit,  parts  of  which  are  actualized  in  the 
various  plants  and  animals,  must  be  first  in  the  organiz- 
ing force,  in  the  vital  force,  in  the  primary  force,  in  the 
substance.  Every  morphic  idea  actualized  anywhere 
must  be  in  the  primary  force,  in  the  substance  of  which 
it  is  a  function,  and  all  morphic  ideas  must   be  a  unit  in 


170  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

the  one  and  universal  force.  Hence  God  is  the  organism 
of  all  organisms,  if  Mr.  Dubois  wants  it  expressed  so,  not 
merely  potential  but  actual,' for  what  we  call  actual  in 
matter  is  really  actual  in  the  universal  mind  and  po- 
tential in  matter  as  its  moving  cause.  We,  of  course, 
would  express  it  so  :  The  cause  contains  more  than  the 
aggregate  of  its  effects,  anyhow  it  must  contain  each  of 
its  effects.  Will  and  intellect,  appearing  as  effects,  in  the 
individuals  from  a  cause  in  the  substance,  must  be  infi- 
nitely greater  in  the  cause  than  in  all  effects  thereof.  So 
Mr.  Dubois  might  find  also  a  brain  in  the  grand  organism 
of  nature,  which  is  not  necessary  for  us,  to  whom  hrain 
is  not  the  cause  but  an  effect  of  will  and  intellect  and 
their  momentary  apparatus. 

Here,  however,  Hegel  and  the  Heglians,  down  to  Lud- 
wig  Noire,  Schoppenhauer,  Ed.  von  Hartmann,  Volkert, 
Venetianer,  Huxlej',  Spencer,  and  a  few  moi'e,  besides 
David  Frederic  Strauss,  chime  in  :  Provided  the  Cosmic 
God  is  self-conscious,  the  laws  of  nature  are  present  in  his 
consciousness  ;  if  not,  not.  Not  having  discussed  yet  the 
question  of  consciousness  and  self-consciousness  in  gen- 
eral, I  can  not  apply  them  here  understand ingly,  and 
must  postpone  this  question  till  my  next  lecture.  Still, 
on  the  strength  of  the  foregoing  argument,  I  am  entitled 
to  postulate, 'that  intellect  materialized  becomes  uncon- 
scious; intellect  itself  dematerialized  is  ahvays  self-con- 
scious. The  forces  of  nature  are  psychical  and  substantial, 
but  thej''  are  materialized,  hence  intellect  in  the  inor- 
ganic matter  is  unconscious  will,  therefore  it  is  always 
logical  and  always  reaches  its  aims  and  purposes.  When 
we  speak  of  natural  forces,  we  actually  speak  of  as  many 
ideas  in  the  divine  mind.  The  ideas  themselves  are  un- 
conscious, but  they  are  always  in  a  self-conscious  mind, 
as  is  "the  case  with  all  ideas  of  which  we  have  an}'-  cog- 
nition. So  God  is  immanent  in  nature,  omnipresent 
therein  as  the  cause  thereof,  and  revealed  in  every  phe- 
nomenon, and  in  every  quality  of  matter,  by  active  force. 
It  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  the  substance 
thought  means  deed,  an  ideal  fact;  thinking  is  real  in 
connection  with  omnipotence.  When  you  have  an  idea, 
you  may  have  a  volition  to  do  so,  and  consider  whether 
you  should  and  could  or  not ;  all  of  which  is  not  the  case 
in  the  Deity. 

Again  as  this  material  nature  is  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  universe,  the  worlds  are  mere  points  in  space; 
God  is  not  inhumated,  interred,  incarnated,  or  material- 
ized in  nature.     The  cause  is  not   lost  in  its  effects,  not. 


NATURE  AND  ITS  RELATION  TO    DEITY.  171 

submerged  and  not  exhausted  in  them.  The  cauRe  re- 
mains the  cause  forever,  independent  of  ^11  eflfects,  and 
infinitely  more  than  the  aggregate  of  its  effects.  God  is 
inceptive  ia  the  mathematical  sense  of  this  terra.  He  is 
the  universe,  and  material  nature  is  in  Him;  but  he  is 
not  exhausted  therein.  The  Cosmic  God  is  not  out- 
side of  the  universe,  nothing  can  be  thought  or  imagined 
outside  thereof,  but  He  is  outside  of  material  nature  as 
well  as  inside  thereof;  therefore  we  call  Him  the  super- 
mundane God. 

The  natural  forces  being  psj^chical  and  unconscious  in 
their  materialized  state,  seek  liberation  from  unconscious- 
ness, and  break  through  the  material  bonds  in  the  or- 
ganic kingdoms,  in  the  centers  of  consciousness  and  self- 
consciousness,  and  so  the  primary  force  becomes  gradu- 
ally itself  again  in  uncounted  millions  of  ideas. 

Here  is  one  of  our  great  advantages  over  materialism. 
It  can  not  account  for  consciousness,  the  simplest  sensa- 
tion or  feeling,  or  even  the  formation  of  a  cell  or  a  pro- 
toplasm. Where  the  infusorium  with  its  red  point  of 
eyes  sees  rays  of  light,  or  the  polypces  the  living  infuso- 
rium, where  a  sea- weed  or  a  blade  of  grass  grows,  or  a 
spider  weaves  its  web,  the  philosophy  of  materialism  is 
at  an  end,  simply  because  its  premises  are  erroneous  and 
false.  We  know  the  tree  by  its  fruits.  With  us,  how- 
ever, the  whole  process  of  nature  is  a  unit.  The  primary 
force  is  vital  force,  is  will  and  intellect,  consequently  all 
causes  of  organic  life  and  functions  are  in  it.  It  over- 
comes and  metamorphozes  matter  gradually  and  syste- 
matically prepares  organic  buds  on  the  tree  of  life,  un- 
folds them  to  blossoms  of  consciousness,  and  ripens  them 
to  fruits  of  self-consciousness.  Conscious  centers  are 
produced  by  the  same  force  which  created  the  material 
substance,  preserves  and  governs  it,  and  individuates  it- 
self therein.  It  is  the  psychical  force  becoming  itself 
again.     It  is  its  victory  over  matter. 

With  us  also  many  absurd  questions  fall  to  the  ground. 
What  does  God  do,  if  the  forces  of  nature  do  it  all?--i8 
one  of  those  absurd  queries.  Where  are  the  derivative 
forces,  if  their  efficient  cause  be  withdrawn  ?  we  ask  in 
return,  and  the  only  reply  is,  if  God  should  withdraw 
himself  from  nature,  it  would  become  again  Tohu  Vbohu. 
The  cause  removed  and  the  effects  are  no  more.  Why 
did  God  not  create  this  world  or  others  millions  of  years 
before?  is  another  absurdity  with  us,  who  know  that 
time  is  a  nonentity,  and  the  nonentity  can  not  be  taken 
into  consideration.     Who  made   God  ?  is   probably  th& 


172  THE   COSMIC  GOD. 

most  absurd  of  all  absurd  questions.  God  is  the  First 
Cause,  and  an  endless  regression  of  causes  is  in  itself  ab- 
surd, as  Aristotle  already  discovered. 

With  us  there  is  only  one  God,  one  substance,  and  thio 
is  psychical.  He  is  the  universe,  and  the  force;  life,  free- 
dom, will,  intellect,  are  his  cardinal  attributes,  which  in- 
clude omnipotence,  omniscience,  omnipresence,  and  su- 
preme justice.  Matter  without  force  is  the  non-substance, 
the  indifferent  zero.  Nature  is  the  created  substance  of 
force  and  matter,  and  is  continually  in  God  and  under 
his  control.  The  natural  forces  are  materialized  deriva- 
ties  from  the  primary  force,  which  is  a  function  of  the 
substance,  and  like  it  psychical.  In  'the  organic  beings 
the  primary  force  becomes  again  itself,  conscious  and 
then  self-conscious  in  man.  The  creation  and  nature  of 
man  is  no  less  plain  and  simple  in  this  unity  of  archi- 
tecture; but  we  must  postpone  this  subject  to  our  next 
iectare. 


MAN   IN   HIS   RELATIONS  TO  GCD  AND   NATURE.  173^ 


LECTURE    XXII. 


MAN  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  GOD  AND  NATURE. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen. — Nature's  beauty,  grandeur, 
and  sublimity,  exist  in  the  aesthetical  consciousness  of 
intelligent  beings;  hence  on  earth  in  man  only.  The 
mind  is  not  merely  the  mirror  of  nature,  it  is  nature's 
magic  wand  which  enlivens  the  reflexes  and  adorns  them 
with  the  charms  and  graces  which  it  possesses.  In  man, 
nature  or  the  first  cause  of  this  planet,  becomes  self-con- 
scious, itself  again.  Imagination  is  the  kaleidescope 
turned  by  the  senses  and  phantasy.  Consciousness  is 
the  mind's  animating  and  animated  focus,  where  na- 
ture collects  and  recognizes  itself  again.  In  its  highest 
degree,  consciousness  is  the  utmost,  the  ne  plus  ultra  of 
nature,  in  which  the  whole  cycle  of  evolutions  is  com- 
pleted. The  self-conscious  cause  of  this  planet's  crea- 
tion, has  become  self-conscious,  itself  again. 

Therefore  consciousness  is  nature's  final  cause,  its  last 
object  and  highest  function.  It  must  be  admitted,  either 
this  cosmos  has  no  object  of  existence,  or  it  exists  to  be 
known,  admired,  and  enjoyed,  which  makes  the  existence 
of  conscious  beings  necessary  as  the  final  cause.  We 
know  that  nature  is  the  work  of  intelligence  ;  and  intel- 
ligence, such  is  the  law  of  its  nature,  is  always  at  work 
to  accomplish  preconcerted  ends.  In  the  common  trans- 
actions of  our  every-day  life,  we  expect  everywhere  a 
premeditated  end  of  intelligent  labor,  simply  because  it 
is  the  law  of  intelligence.  Let  us  add  here,  that  it  is 
certainly  absurd  to  expect  more  wisdom  of  the  differen- 
tiated than  of  the  universal  intellect.  Therefore  nature 
has  a  final  cause  which  must  have  been  premeditated  in 
a  self-consciousness  and  end  again  in  self-consciousness, 
as  nothiug  can  come  out  of  nothing,  and  no  effect  can  be 
more  than  its  cause. 

Consciousness  is  of  different  degrees  between  infoBO* 


174  THE    COSMIC    GOD. 

rium  and  man.  It  comprises  two  elements,  viz.:  the  ob- 
jects outside,  and  the  ideas  inside  of  the  conscious  be- 
ing, linowledge  and  being,  fao  that  it  is  both  objective 
and  subjective.  It  is  the  only  organ  which  unites  and 
harmonizes  these  two  elements,  so  that  it  announces  it- 
self as  the  last  ring  in  the  chain  of  being,  closing  the 
circle  of  existence  between  the  dilFerentiated  and  univer- 
sal intelligence,  nature's  final  cause,  the  re  appearance  of 
its  first  cause. 

The  different  degrees  of  consciousness  depend  on  its 
quality  of  intensity.  Let  us  compare  it,  for  illustration, 
to  a  light  in  the  center  of  a  conscious  being,  to  be  also 
its  focus.  The  light  of  the  lowest  quality  or  intensity 
will  diffuse  its  rays  to  but  a  short  distance  and  illumin- 
ate but  a  few  objects  ;  hence  few  will  be  reflected  in  the 
focus.  The  light  of  the  highest  quality  and  intensity  will 
reach  and  illuminate  a  large  circle  of  objects,  hence  re- 
flect many  in  its  focus,  and  reflect  them  so  much  clearer 
and  more  distinct.  Imagine  a  large  plain,  the  horizon 
bounded  by  a  chain  of  mountains  hei*e,  a  forest  there,  a 
lake  yonder,  with  a  variety  of  objects  on  it,  all  seen  dis- 
tinctly in  the  light  of  the  sun.  Then  see  the  same  plain 
in  moon  light ;  how  much  smaller,  how  many  objects 
change  their  forms  or  disappear  altogether;  in  a  dark 
night  with  a  torch  light  or  a  lantern  in  hand,  you  see 
less  and  less,  and  the  objects  seen  become  less  distinct. 
So  consciousness  differs  in  various  organic  beings  from 
infusorium  to  man  up  to  great  and  comprehensive 
minds. 

In  the  highest  classes  of  animals,  consciousness  reaches 
not  beyond  the  periphery  of  self-preservation,  the  indi- 
vidual, and  the  race.  It  becomes  conscious  of  the  ob- 
jects which  have  some  direct  relation  to  its  self-preserva- 
tion, without  the  idea  of  number,  time,  cause,  effect,  color 
or  shape.  It  is  a  kind  of  dim  consciousness,  called  so 
because  we  have  no  word  to  express  it  correctly.  The 
consciousness  of  man  is  of  an  entirely  different  quality. 
He  sees  the  universe,  or  rather  enough  of  it  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  whole;  and  in  the  universe  he  is  conscious  of 
forces,  laws,  mind,  and  God.  He  penetrates  far  beyond 
the  periphery  of  self-preservation,  and  the  objects  within 
that  line.  He  lifts  the  veil  of  sensual  objects  to  recognize 
causes  and  the  cause  of  causes.  Man  only  knowe  na- 
ture, hence  he  alone  can  be  nature's  final  cause,  in  whom 
the  first  cause  becomes  itself  again. 

The  reflection  of  nature,  metamorphozed  to  living 
ideas  in  man's  consciousness,  is  so  powerful  in  the  focus, 


MAN   IN   HIS   RELATION   TO   GOD  AND   NATURB.  175 

that  man  becomes  the  index  of  nature,  a  minature  uni- 
verse, in  which  he  sees  also  himself  and  his  own  appa- 
ratus of  cognition.  He  makes  himself  subject  and  object 
of  his  consciousness,  the  thinker,  the  thinking,  and  the 
object  thought,  i.  e.,  he  is  self-conscious.  He  recognizes 
himself  with  all  his  capacities  and  abilities,  and  the  uni- 
verse reflected  in  him.  He  recognizes  the  causes  in  him 
and  outside  of  him,  his  own  reality  and  universal itj' 
together  with  the  reality  and  universality  outside 
of  him,  and  the  laws  governing  both.  The  cause  of 
self  consciousness  is  certainly  the  intensity  of  conscious- 
ness, recognizing  so  many  objects,  causes,  laws  and 
effects  which  he  must  compare  among  themselves  and  to 
himself,  that  by  the  very  law  of  contradiction,  he  must 
become  self-conscious.  Therefore  animals  can  not  be 
self-conscious,  and  among  men  it  varies  in  degree  accord- 
ing to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  cognitions  and  com- 
parisons, so  that  the  most  powerful  intellect,  the  most 
enlarged  and  enriched  intelligence,  the  most  active  and 
exact  mind  developes  the  most  powerful  self-conscious- 
ness, in  whom  nature  has  become  itself  again. 

Here  we  have  arrived  at  another  very  important  point, 
a  prominent  trait  of  human  nature.  Self-consciousness 
comprises  not  only  all  the  mental  functions  of  man,  but 
also  his  moral  character.  Self  conscious  beings  onlj'-can 
be  moral,  for  they  and  they  only,  know  that  the  moral 
law,  the  categoric  imperative,  is  the  law  of  their  own  na- 
ture. To  be  moral  signifies  to  obey  the  moral  law  as  it 
is,  and  because  it  is  a  component  part,  a  constituent  of 
human  nature.  Morality  from  any  other  motive  is  far 
from  perfection.  There  may  be,  and  1  have  no  doubt 
there  are  moral  traits  in  all  living  beings,  as  Mr.  Darwin 
and  other  biologists  maintain,  since  the  nature  of  the 
first  cause  is  universally  the  same;  there  may  be,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  there  are,  moral  traits  in  all  human  be- 
ings, however  degraded  or  savage;  but  morality  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  term  depends  on  self-consciousness. 
One  can  be  moral  knowingly  and  wittingly  only,  that  he 
obeys  the  laws  of  his  own  nature  as  a  free  agent. 
Therefore  the  various  degrees  of  self-oonsciousness  make 
also  the  various  degrees  of  morality,  so  that  with  the 
loftiest  self-consciousness  only,  the  highest  degree  of 
morality  is  possible.  Here  is  the  philosophical  founda- 
tion of  ethics,  but  we  cannot  discuss  it  here,  and  will 
only  add  that  the  loftiest  self-consciousness  is  in  God, 
therefore  also  the  perfection  of  morality. 

Where  is  the   cause  of  all  that?    Where  and  how  do 


176  TUB  COSMIC  GOD. 

consciousness,  self-consciousness,  and  moral  conscience 
awake  in  the  living  being,  and  what  is  the  nature  of  that 
anomaly?  They  ai*e  not  in  the  materialist's  matter,  in 
atoms,  and  atomic  forces  ;  hence  the  materialist  replies,  I 
do  not  know.  They  are  not  in  Schopenhauer's  irrational 
will  as  the  world's  substance,  therefoi-e  he  gives  us  no 
answer  how  the  irrational  becomes  rational.  They  are 
not  in  Hartmann's  unconscious  will  and  intellect  as  the 
world's  substance,  hence  here  the  very  weakest  point  of 
that  philosophy,  as  Voikert  well  remarks.  Xor  are  they 
in  Hegel's  absolute  idea,  which,  though  logical,  is  no  less 
unconscious  and  void  of  moral  principle  than  Hart- 
mann's unconscious  substance  ;  and  all  the  pointed  words 
used  as  to  the  self-division  of  the  idea  and  the  opposition 
of  its  parts,  are  void  of  any  substantial  meaning,  as  they 
name  not  the  quodity  of  consciousness  and  morality. 
That  these  functions  exist  can  as  little  be  doubted  as  we 
can  change  the  truisms,  nothing  can  come  from  nothing,, 
something  only  can  produce  something,  and  the  effect 
must  be  in  the  cause.  Hence  we  are  compelled  to  place 
the  cause  back  into  the  very  nature  of  intellect,  as  an  at- 
tribute thereof,  and  say  intellect  is  always  self-conscious 
and  moral ;  therefore  the  first  cause  of  this  and  every 
other  planet  must  be  self-conscious  and  moral.  But  we 
know  that  inorganic  nature  is  neither,  that  the  degrees 
vary  in  the  organic  beings  as  we  descend  the  scale  of  or- 
ganism to  arrive  finally  at  stupor  and  unconsciousness. 
We  know  that  in  all  these  phenomena  we  have  but  one 
first  cause  before  us.  Hence,  the  conclusion  appears  to 
me  as  irresistible  as  the  cogito  ergo  sum,  hence  the  first 
cause  is  self-conscious  and  moral ;  its  derivative  forces 
are  unconscious  in  their  materialization  in  nature,  to 
break  through  matter,  and  by  the  gradual  process  of 
evolution  make  it  fit  of  becoming  organisms  for 
self-conscious  manifestations  of  intelligence ;  and  in  them 
the  first  cause  becomes  itself  again  in  the  differentiated 
state  which  is  its  victory  over  matter,  while  all  the  timo 
the  conscious  and  unconscious,  the  moral  and  immoral, 
are  present  in  the  self-consciousness  and  morality  of  the 
first  cause  which  is  God  for  ever. 

This  explains  all  phenomena,  accidental  or  substantial, 
from  the  principle.  So  the  vegetable  kingdom  is  the 
transition  from  the  unconscious  to  the  conscious  in  mat- 
ter; and  the  animal  is  the  transition  from  the  conscious 
to  the  self-conscious  in  man,  with  all  gradations  in  both 
cases  J  and  the  natural  man  is  the  transition  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest  decree  of  self-consciousness   and 


MAN  IN  HIS  DELATIONS  TO  OOD  AND  NATURE.    177 

morality  in  the  man  of  culture  and  civilization,  the  man 
of  history.  It  is  all  one  first  cause,  developing  gradually 
its  various  functions  in  the  progression  of  evolutions. 
It  is  all  self-conscious  in  the  first  cause  to  become  again 
self-conscious  in  man.  It  is  the  fundamental  principle 
of  vital  monism.  It  is  also  the  philosophical  foundation 
of  moral  theology,  without  ignoring  one  fact  of  science. 

This  refutes  Emanuel  Kant's  supposition  that  we  can 
not  know  the  thing  per  se  (das  Ding  an  sich).  We  do 
know  it  as  soon  as  we  are  sufficiently  self-conscious. 
Man  is  the  thing  per  se,  matter  and  force,  cause  and 
effect,  inorganic  matter,  solid,  liquid,  gas,  vegetable,  ani- 
mal, spirit,  unconscious,  conscious,  and  self-conscious. 
He  is  nature's  complete  index,  the  mycrocosm  in  the 
macrocosm.  He  is  matter's  last  gradations  and  the 
spirit's  final  triumph  over  it.  Whenever  man  will  have 
knowledge  enough  of  himself  and  nature,  he  will  easily 
discover  in  himself  das  Ding  an  sich. 

So  man  s  relation  to  Grod  and  nature  is  clear.  He  is 
the  connecting  link  between  both.  He  represents  un- 
conscious nature  and  self-conscious  God.  He  stands  un- 
der the  control  of  nature's  forces  which  he  controls  by 
the  last  triumph  of  mind  over  matter.  He  is  continually 
the  governor  and  the  governed,  the  perpetual  struggle 
and  triumph  of  mind  over  matter,  always  progressing 
in  the  dominion  of  the  conscious  over  the  unconscious  in 
the  process  of  history.  This  leads  us  into  the  realm  of 
history. 

In  countless  millions  of  ideas,  not  one  exactly  like  the 
other,  the  first  cause  of  this  planet  has  become  conscious 
again  ;  and  in  another  unknown  number  of  ideas  it  has 
become  self-conscious,  itself  again,  in  human  beings,  dif- 
ferentiated and  individualized  with  freedom.  While  the 
analogous  ti-aits  of  intellect  under  all  circumstances  point 
to  one  univeral  intellect,  the  variety  of  capacities,  abili- 
ties, talents,  geniuses,  and  inclinations,  point  just  as  dis- 
tinctly to  freedom,  individuality,  personality,  self-acting 
intellect  and  will  in  man.  As  such,  to  use  a  rabbinical 
metaphor,  man  is  an  associate  of  the  Deity  in  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  creation.  It  is  by  the  continuous  devel- 
opment of  human  nature  in  the  process  of  history  to  a 
higher  degree  of  self-consciousness,  that  the  first  cause 
becomes  more  and  more  itself  in  man's  triumphs  over 
unconscious  nature.  So  the  progression  of  history  is 
the  progression  of  the  first  cause  to  its  highest  tri- 
umphs. 

12 


178  tH£  COSMIC  GOD. 

Man's  self-consciousness  increases  with  the  increase  ot 
his  knowledge,  and  witli  it,  his  moral  nature  grows  in 
beautiful  proportion  and  harmony.  I  do  not  mean  to 
maintain  that  those  who  possess  the  most  extensive 
learning  are  necessarily  the  most  moral  men,  although 
as  a  general  thing  they  are;  I  only  maintain  that  self- 
consciousness  is  the  cause,  and  morals  the  effect,  and  the 
effect  can  never  be  higher  than  its  cause.  With  every 
onward  step  in  knowledge  and  moralitj',  man  gains  do- 
minion over  the  lower  realms  of  nature,  the  conscious 
subjugates  the  unconscious,  and  so  he  assists  the  Deity  in 
the  government  of  matter,  the  triumph  of  self  conscious 
and  moral  intelligence.  The  history  of  philosophy 
marks  the  onward  steps  of  growing  self-consciousncBS  ; 
the  history  of  government  and  religion  marks  out  the 
onward  march  of  morality,  and  the  history  of  arts  and 
inventions  tells  man's  progress  in  the  government  of 
mechanical  nature.  The  highest  law  for  man  is  to  ad- 
vance himself  and  others  in  self- consciousness,  morality, 
and  dominion  over  mechanical  nature,  the  triumph  and 
mastery  of  the  conscious  over  the  unconscious,  of  mind 
over  matter.  So  man  fulfills  his  destiny  in  society,  and 
elevates  himself  to  an  immortal  personality.  Here  is 
the  fundamental  idea  in  philosophy  for  the  doctrine  of 
the  soul's  immortality. 

History  is  the  functional  development  of  the  first  cause 
of  this  planet  in  the  various  personalities,  each  of  whom 
is  a  self-conscious  idea  in  that  first  cause,  hence  in  God. 
Each  period  in  history  is  the  final  cause  of  all  preceding 
ones,  and  the  last  will  be  the  final  cause'of  all  the  former. 
Every  person  makes  history  as  far  as  he  fulfills  his  des- 
tiny. Each  period  of  history  is  made  by  the  persons  act- 
ing at  that  period;  hence  every  person  fulfilling  his  des- 
tiny in  history  is  i^  himself  a  final  cause  of  creation 
and  history. 

Again  as  man's  selx  <3on8ciou8ness  grows  with  the  in- 
crease of  his  knowledge,  and  his  morality  with  his  self- 
consciousness,  he  must  necessarily  live  and  co-operate 
with  the  society  of  progressive  culture  and  civilization. 
For  man  receives  most  of  his  knowledge  from  man  and 
the  established  institutions,  least  from  his  own  observa- 
tion and  experience,  and  moral  perfection  can  be  reached 
in  society  only.  Society  and  not  the  brain  or  nerves  of 
the  individual  is  the  depository  of  actualized  mind  from 
all  past  ages,  preserved  in  books,  documents,  works  of 
art,  articles  of  daily  use,  state  and  social  organizations 


MAN  IN  HIS  RELATIONS  TO  GOD  AND  NATURE.    179 

and  establishments,  customs,  maxims,  popularized  prin- 
cijjles,  laws,  moral  and  intellectual  habits,  modes  of  liv- 
ing, scholastic  and  educational  establishments,  and  means 
of  communication,  multiplying  and  improving  with  every 
passing  day. 

The  principle  underlying  the  social  problem  is  the  per- 
petual re-union  of  all  personalities,  however  distant  from 
one  another  in  time  or  space,  in  one  great  self-conscious- 
ness of  the  human  family,  and  so  again  to  re-act  on  each 
personality.  While  any  generation  or  individual  makes 
mankind's  knowledge  and  experience  his  own,  he.  unites 
himself  with  all  the  personalities  of  the  past.  While  he 
lives  and  co-operates  with  the  generation  in  which  he 
lives,  he  makes  its  knowledge  and  experience  his  own, 
and  unites  himself  with  all  the  personalities  of  his  age. 
Soothe  work  of  perpetual  re-union  of  all  personalities,  of 
all  ages,  goes  on  continually,  elevating  the  self-conscious- 
ness and  moral  principle  of  mankind  and  re-acting  per- 
petually on  each  individual.  As  the  self-consciousness 
of  humanity  in  its  totality  is  an  attribute  of  the  eternal 
Deity,  so  the  personal  self-consciousness,  the  personality, 
is  a  self-conscious  idea  in  the  Deity,  hence  immortal  as 
such.  This  is  the  fundamental  idea  to  a  philosophy  of 
history.  The  growth  of  the  self-consciousness  of  man- 
kind and  the  proportional  growth  of  the  individual  are 
always  and  continually  the  final  cause  of  ci*eation  and 
history.  To  establish  the  efficient  causes  which  produced 
this  final  cause  is  the  main  work  of  a  philosophy  of  his- 
tory. 

So  man's  relations  to  God  and  nature  as  an  active,  free 
moral  agent  are  clear.  He  is  capacitated  and  prompted 
by  natural  impulses  to  co-operate  with  the  Deity  in 
bringing  about  the  triumphs  of  mind  over  matter,  of  the 
conscious  over  the  unconscious,  in  the  steady  progressions 
of  mankind's  self-consciousness,  morality  and  freedom, 
and  its  reaction  on  the  individual  personalities,  by  which 
man  and  mankind  are  elevated  to  immortality,  i.  e.,  to 
an  attribute  and  self-conscious  idei),  in  the  Deity.  The 
perpetual  re-union  of  all  personalities  in  the  self-con- 
sciousness, and  the  progresses  of  science,  ai't,  philosophy, 
morals,  freedom  and  religion  in  each  generation,  are  the 
means  to  the  end  of  nature's  first  cause  becoming  itself 
again  in  man's  self-consciousness.  This  is  the  foundation 
of  all  philosophical  ethics.  Man's  happiness  depends  on 
the  triumphs  of  mind  over  matter. 

The  circle  is  closed  and  so  is  the  cycle  of  my  lectureu 
for  this  season.     Matter,  force,  law,  God,  -creation,  ntv- 


180  THE    COSMIC   GOD. 

ture,  man,  history,  will,  intellect,  self-cousciousness, 
efficient,  and  final  causes,  aim,  object,  duty  and  destiny 
are  clear  conceptions,  well  defined  ideas  to  us.  We  have 
solved  the  problems  by  the  light  of  induction.  The  sys- 
tem is  a  complete  organism,  as  far  as  induction  leads, 
and  beyond  it  I  can  not  go  in  these  lectures. 


And  now  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  permit  me  to  speak  a 
parting  word  to  you.  Twentj'-two  evenings  we  have 
met  here  in  intellectual  communion.  Many  a  counte- 
nance 1  had  not  seen  before,  has  become  to  me  familiar 
and  endeared.  Search  after  the  sacred  gems  of  truth 
has  united  us  in  bonds  of  sacred  friendship.  I  thank 
you  all  for  the  kind  attention  you  have  paid  tu  my  hum- 
ble efforts.  1  thank  you  for  your  company  on  the  rug- 
ged path  of  philosophical  inquiry,  for  the  sympathy  you 
have  manifested  for  my  darling  child,  whose  name  is 
light,  more  light. 

None  will  ever  learn,  under  what  painful  and  truly  dis- 
tressing influences  these  lectures  were  conceived,  written 
and  delivered.  Many  a  time  did  I  argue  before  you  the 
most  difficult  problems,  while  my  heart  was  aching, 
throbbing,  weeping,  almost  breaking.  The  woeful  passions 
and  struggles  of  my  soul  were  artificially  hidden  under 
the  thick  veil  of  arguments.  None  will  Qver  learn,  and 
learning  it  would  never  believe  it,  and  yet  I  must  tell  it 
as  a  lesson  for  many,  what  I  have  done  in  the  darkest 
hours  of  my  existence,  and  how  I  have  accomplished  it. 

Know  it  all,  young  people  especially.  When  I  was 
young,  I  chose  a  bride,  the  fairest  of  all  maidens,  and  to 
her  I  made  the  sacred  vow  of  fidelity.  She  always  loved, 
cherished,  encouraged  and  inspired  me  with  confidence, 
boldness  and  fortitude.  In  the  hours  of  success  and  vic- 
tory she  triumphed  loudly  over  my  gladness ;  in  all 
trials,  when  earthly  joys  and  mundane  happiness  de- 
serted me,  friends  forsook  me,  and  foes  scorned,  she  was 
my  angel  of  consolation,  doubled  and  trebled  her  tender- 
ness, and  lavished  it  profusely  on  her  hapless  consort. 
Often  have  I  abandoned  her,  roamed  thoughtlessly  far, 
far  away,  until  I  fell  in  the  wild  chase  wounded,  crushed, 
bleeding,  moaning.  Then  I  always  returned  home  to 
her,  and  she  always  smiled  again  in  holy  sympathy, 
fanned  cooling  air  at  my  glowing  brows,  kissed  the  grief 
from  my  forehead,  wiped  away  the  tears,  balmed  the 
wounds,  and  restored  me  to  health  and  vigor.     Eternally 


MAN    IN    niS    RELATIONS   TO   GOD    AND    NATURE.        181 

young,  bright,  kind,  forbearing,  affectionate  and  mild, 
she  always  was  the  same  angel  of  consolation.  ' 

Again  in  the  days  of  my  sorrow,  in  affliction  and  dis- 
tress, I  have  sought  her  and  found  her  again.  Again  she 
has  taken  me  by  the  hand  and  taught  me  the  great  prin- 
ciple, a  man  must  be  stronger  than  his  grief  This  im- 
mortal bride,  this  matchless  angel,  friends,  is — Science, 
Philosophy,  the  eternal  banner  bearer  of  eternal  truth. 
She  never  deserted,  never  deceived,  never  refused  me 
her  love  and  her  consolation.  The  earnest  disciple  of 
science,  philosophy,  finds  in  the  luminous  regions  of  in- 
telligence a  world  of  happiness,  also  in  the  midst  of  seas 
of  affliction  and  distress.  One  Eureka!  at  a  discovered 
truth  outweighs  years  of  patience,  anxiety  and  suffering ; 
and  each  Eureka  !  is  a  diadem  of  glory  from  yonder 
heavenborn  queen.  Each  Eureka  !  invigorates  with  self- 
consciousness,  pride,  force,  happiness  and  glory  in  the 
mind's  self- created  paradise. 

I  recommend  my  bride  to  all,  and  promise  them  never 
to  be  jealous  ;  for  her  heart  is  vast  enough  to  embrace 
all,  to  love  all,  and  to  bless  all. 


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